Academy Award Predictions: Happy Oscars Everybody! by Randi / March 2, 2014
I’ve had a new obsession lately, thanks to my commute. While I wait for my train to work, I am tempted day in and day out by these little bags of crispy chickpea snacks sold in my train station. Although sometimes they nearly break my teeth, I love them. Little chickpeas are somehow addictive, incredibly tasty, and pretty healthy, considering they are mostly just chickpeas! My habit is getting expensive though, so I decided to try making my own. Success! With little effort, I made 4 delicious kinds of crispy chickpeas today, and I am probably going to make more and more every day until I get sick of them or until all the stores run out of chickpeas. Let’s see what happens first! I really hope it’s not the latter. Or, really, the former.
#1: CHOCOLATE COCONUT SEA SALT
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Ingredients:
Directions:
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GARBANZOOOOOOOO 
Chocolate chickpeas! SO gross uncooked! 🙂 |
#2: SALTY CHOCOLATE & CINNAMON
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Ok, this is kind of cheating, but it’s my favorite one. Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry ingredients above. Uhhhmazing. |
Di di di di di dirrrty pop |
#3: SRIRACHA & LIME
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Ingredients:
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All oiled up 
Yum! Baked to the bone |
#4: GARLIC & SEA SALT & CRACKED
BLACK PEPPER
BLACK PEPPER
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Ingredients:
Directions:
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I’m in the oil bowl, I’m in the spice bowl ! 
I’m in the spice bowl, I’m in the oil bowl! |
BEFORE COOKERY!
AFTER COOKERY! (minus handfuls that were assigned as testers…)
I love all of these flavor combinations, and I can’t wait to try more! I know a lot of other recipes for these say to use dried chickpeas, because you can control the cooking process, but a) ain’t nobody got time for that! and b) using canned chickpeas worked fine! Next on my list is a cinnamon & sea salt one with melted Earth Balance as the base, to make kind of a salted caramel-like treat. And then maybe Frank’s and nooch? Speculoos?? Who knows! The possibilities are endless and delicious. What flavor combos would you try next? Is it bad that I can eat 3 cans of chickpeas in one day because of this new obsession? No? Score!
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Happy News Alert: 2nd Annual Vegan Family Reunion (San Antonio, TX)
I think we all need something wonderful to look forward to! With impeccable timing comes the 2nd Annual Vegan Family Reunion, the brainchild of host Rooted Vegan Cuisine of San Antonio, Texas. This special occasion is THIS WEEKEND, Sunday March 6, and promises to be an epic day of food, fun, festivities, and community building. Featuring more than 30 Black-Owned small businesses and artists, the event will benefit local nonprofits and support local charities, including the Black Birth Fund.
San Antonio’s Rooted Vegan Cuisine, once a pop-up vegan restaurant and now a maker of incredible frozen vegan foods, hosts the Vegan Family Reunion for the second year. From 12-5pm on Sunday, the pop-up market and party at the San Antonio Food Bank will convene more than 30 Black-owned and vegan small businesses, artists, entertainers, and more to celebrate “food, fun, and Black excellence!”
The event celebrates the intersection of Black equality and veganism, raising funds that will pour back into the local Black community through small businesses, artists, and charities. It will do all this while highlighting the importance and benefits of veganism and its direct impact on the Black community.
WHAT YOU’LL FIND
- VEGAN FOOD
- PRO CHEF DEMOS
- MUSIC
- LIVE DJ
- VEGAN RAPPER GREY
- DANCING
- PONIESSSSS (from Ponycycle)
- HAYRIDES
- LIVE ART PRESENTATIONS
- PET ADOPTIONS!!!
- BOUNCY HOUSES (YESSSS)
- NUTRITION SEMINAR
- VEGAN BEAUTY & HAIR DEMOS
- MINI SKATEBOARD PARK
Did I mention it’s free to attend? It’s free to attend! But please RSVP in advance so they can anticipate the crowd size. Book your space here and register either for your free space, or with a donation (omg you’re so awesome!), or as a VIC (Very Important Charity). More ways to contribute – including from afar! – are listed further down.
I must take this time, before I forget, to tell you that there will be two bounce houses – one for kids and one just for adults. LITERALLY THE DREAM.
The strength of a local community is so important, and that’s clearer now more than ever. So many different businesses, organizations, and various community members are coming together to make this happen. Host Naomi of Rooted Vegan Cuisine said the list of participants and supporters is “incredible and humbling”.
She also said she’s bringing to-go containers to make sure she doesn’t miss any of the amazing food…so…follow her lead!
Some of the food vendors expected to blow your minds on Sunday include: Wheatsville (I know, one of our faves!), Vegan Sushi Spot, Alamo City Cakes, The Vegancy, Chef Cidney, and Bake Love. Non-food amazingness includes Art by Sheri, Gardopia Gardens, Tracy J Jewelry, and Ionic Soul Spa. I MEAN. COME ON!
There’s a whole packed schedule for the day too, with kitchen demos, nutrition and fertility seminars, and musical entertainment. It promises to be an incredible day!
We’re all aware of how exponentially veganism has increased in recent years, and a large part of that is due to Black activists, who have been promoting veganism even back to the Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s. And African-Americans compose the fastest-growing vegan demographic. This event aims to respect and acknowledge these facts while cementing the connection between veganism and Black activism, especially on the community level.
Proceeds from the event will benefit the Black Birth Fund, created by the San Antonio Nurse Midwife Birth & Wellness center. The team said they learned of this organization through one of the Vegan Family Reunion committee members, who was herself a recipient of assistance from the Fund when she gave birth. This chance to give back to the fund that helped their teammate so greatly makes this event all the more special, they said.
Vegan Family Reunion has also teamed up with Black Restaurant Week San Antonio to raise money for the San Antonio Food Bank via donations and other funds raised. Attending the event is free, but guests are encouraged to buy t-shirts, buy raffle tickets (see below), and donate whatever they want to raise funds for these worthy organizations.
They are going even further this year in making the space accessible and inviting for so many types of attendees: There will be maternity lounges with doulas for expecting and new parents. There will will a special needs sensory retreat, with trained assistants, for people who need a break from the hubbub. There will be a sign language interpreter, and a toddler soft play area. The level of care is off the charts here. And there will also be a Zero Waste initiative, with the team measuring how much waste is saved from going into landfills.
HOW TO SUPPORT THE EVENT IF YOU AREN’T IN TEXAS
I’m sure many of you are, like me, watching and wishing from afar that we could attend. While we cannot eat its amazing food (or jump in the bouncy house) remotely, we can support it by doing the following:
- Spreading the word – on social media, use the hashtag #veganfamilyreunion and tag @veganfamilyreunion
- Buy raffle tickets – even if we cannot collect or use certain prizes, think of it as a donation, with the money going to truly worthwhile beneficiaries
- Or, Buy tickets to the event as a donation
- Buy the official tee shirt HERE
- Support Rooted Vegan Cuisine – their frozen vegan goodies are available to ship in the USA nationwide (someone please work on getting this to the UK!)
Whatever you can do to support this wonderful event is great, and let’s hope that we can be in San Antonio in person next year!
Veganizing “Friends”: Dr. Roger’s Oysters & Middle Eastern Couscous
This is how I feel about mushrooms. Also, blog namesake!
Given the name of this website, I can’t believe it has taken me this long to make an actual aphrodisiac! Or, at least a vegan version of one. Especially when my font of wisdom, “Friends”, featured the following exchange, in the classic, hilarious episode “The One That Could Have Been”, between Monica and her alternate-reality-insanely-boring boyfriend-who-talks-about-hazelnuts-not-really-being-nuts*, Dr. Roger:
Monica: I hope you’re hungry. We’re starting with oysters. And y’know what they say about oysters, don’t you?
Dr. Roger: They have parasites?
Monica: No! Umm well, some people say that oysters are an aphrodisiac.
Dr. Roger: What people?
Monica: People! People say it! Come here! (She grabs him and kisses him.)
Dr. Roger: So oysters, huh?
Monica: And then we’re gonna have a little Middle Eastern couscous. Something we can eat…with our hands.
Dr. Roger: Y’know, it’s funny, but when we were studying communicable diseases…
Monica: No-no-no, no! It’s sensual!
Dr. Roger: Ohh! Didn’t know! Okay!
Yeah! We’re going to make oysters (the mushroom kind!) and Middle Eastern couscous! And we’re going to eat with our hands…maybe. Nah, probably not.
So, in case you haven’t seen it, “The One That Could Have Been” shows what the gang might be like if Ross and Carol were still married, if Monica were still fat, if Chandler had had the nerve to quit his job*, if Phoebe had taken the job at Merrill Lynch, if Rachel had married Barry, and if Joey never got fired from ‘Days of Our Lives’*. It’s absolutely hysterical, but also sweet because (spoiler!) they all end up roughly the same as they are in reality. Aw, fate.
Anyway, Monica is dating Dr. Roger, and she’s wondering whether she “should, ya know, give him [her] flower.” She makes him this dinner of oysters and couscous in a failed attempt to seduce him. Luckily, Chandler saves the day. Could Chandler BE any greater in this episode? (“They didn’t add the second ‘cous’ until 1979.”)
Because we are talking about “The One That Could Have Been”, I have all the motivation I need to share one of my all-time favorite “Friends” moments, which happened to occur during this episode. It’s Fat Monica’s epic, and I mean EPIC, Dance with the Donut.
Anyway, Monica is dating Dr. Roger, and she’s wondering whether she “should, ya know, give him [her] flower.” She makes him this dinner of oysters and couscous in a failed attempt to seduce him. Luckily, Chandler saves the day. Could Chandler BE any greater in this episode? (“They didn’t add the second ‘cous’ until 1979.”)
Because we are talking about “The One That Could Have Been”, I have all the motivation I need to share one of my all-time favorite “Friends” moments, which happened to occur during this episode. It’s Fat Monica’s epic, and I mean EPIC, Dance with the Donut.
I really cannot handle how perfect Courteney Cox is in this scene, and as Fat Monica in general. She makes the best faces, and I love when her voice gets squeaky, like when she hilarious yells “I KNOW!” And although when faced with all other supposed humor based on mocking someone’s size, I vehemently oppose the fat-shaming or sizeist attitudes at play, something about Fat Monica makes me lose track of my moral compass and just laugh. I’m a terrible person. Let’s make some food.
First, we will marinate and then saute the oyster mushrooms. While I like the flavor imparted by baking mushrooms, oysters cook fairly quickly, and you don’t want them to get rubbery, so we’re going to saute today. Then, we will make my take on a somewhat Middle Eastern couscous. Most such recipes will have dried fruit, but I despise dried fruit in savory food. (Actually, just in food period, because what sweet dishes have dried fruit, fruitcake? Gross.)
First, we will marinate and then saute the oyster mushrooms. While I like the flavor imparted by baking mushrooms, oysters cook fairly quickly, and you don’t want them to get rubbery, so we’re going to saute today. Then, we will make my take on a somewhat Middle Eastern couscous. Most such recipes will have dried fruit, but I despise dried fruit in savory food. (Actually, just in food period, because what sweet dishes have dried fruit, fruitcake? Gross.)
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SAUTEED OYSTER MUSHROOMS
Ingredients:
For the marinade:
The mushrooms marinating. Yeah, I couldn’t find plain oysters so I have a mix here |
Directions:
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MIDDLE EASTERN COUSCOUS
Ingredients:
The carrots, squash, and almonds cooking |
Directions:
Finished couscous |
This was pretty darn yummy! I hope it turns out well for you if you decide to make it. And remember, if you are ever in a bad mood, just watch Monica dancing again.
Giveaway trivia:
- “The hazelnut’s actually not a nut, it’s a seed. Can anyone name a well-known seed that’s been masquerading around as a nut?”
- What did Rachel say was Chandler’s job during the epic trivia game?
- Why DID Joey get fired from ‘DOOL’?
