Vegan MoFo Day 1

If you've come across my page via the Vegan MoFo blogroll, welcome! I'm Sara, stay-at-home mama of Jackson (6) and Olivia (4), wife of Tony, and human companion of Monster.

I cook vegan food at home, but I will eat vegetarian items at restaurants or if we're dining at someone else's house, so that is why I don't classify myself as vegan. Tony and the kids are omnivores, so I make eggs and grilled sandwiches for them from time to time. But I don't cook meat for them, because I don't know how, and I think it's gross. Anyway, this month everything I post will be totes vegan.

I typically write about our daily activities as a busy, adventure-loving family, as well as the food we make. I noticed that a lot of bloggers adopt a theme for MoFo, so this month I've decided I will try to make as many recipes as possible from my Pinterest boards. I have a habit of pinning stuff and never getting around to actually making it, so this will give me a little push, and hopefully be somewhat interesting for you as well.

But there will also be randomness. I have the attention span of a goldfish and can't stick to a theme for thirty days. I have tried before. So before I get to my Pinterest recipe of the day, allow me to share my first-ever attempt at steaming an artichoke.

I saw beautiful whole artichokes at Trader Joe's and decided to bring one home. The anatomy of the artichoke had always been intimidating to me. There's something called a "choke?" And it's sharp and spiky?

Artichokes are actually super simple. I followed this recipe. I didn't injure myself on the spiky choke. Victory! Olivia and I first tried dipping the leaves in melted Earth Balance with black pepper. We didn't like it, so we ended up making a dipping sauce of Veganaise and a little sriracha. I can report it was delicious, and Olivia approved of the new vegetable thanks to its tactile, finger-food aspect.

And here is the Pinterest find for today. Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread. I veganized it no problem by using Earth Balance and subbing flax eggs (1 Tbsp. ground flax + 3 Tbsp. water = 1 egg). If you are new to using flax eggs, be sure to mix the ground flax and water in a small bowl before you do anything else. Then they will have achieved a suitably goopy and "eggy" consistency when it's time to add them to your batter.

A moist, uber-chocolatey bread, a great way to use summer zucchini.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope to see you again this month and to check out your blog as well, if I'm not already following it.