I really like Crystal Lake. On the drive there from either my home or my work, it gets scenic. It’s becoming more and more rare to drive for awhile and only see trees. It’s also not a short drive. There’s a general feeling that you might drive right into someone’s backyard silo or get lost on a dark road with no surrounding civilization. But then, you get to Crystal Lake, and everything you need is there. Even better, Crystal Lake has a great vegan-friendly restaurant: Duke’s Alehouse & Kitchen.

Duke’s is located across the street from the Metra station, so I would imagine that those who commute back home from the city stop by here for a pint before heading home. It’s cozy and open and family-friendly. It was a bit rainy when we were there, so they didn’t have any tables outside, but my understanding is that the outdoor seating is popular on a nice day.

The fact that Duke’s is vegan-friendly is great, but what impressed me most about is that everything is locally sourced. They have a large board which I first assumed was a list of beer specials, but it was actually a list of where they got all their meat and vegetables. For carnivores who care about where their meat comes from, this is the place for you.

Duke’s straightforward vegan options include Grilled Vegetable Flatbread Pizza, Raw Spaghetti Salad (Sun-dried tomato pesto tossed with zucchini “noodles” and served with olive tapenade), Vegan Chili, and Coconut Curried Butternut Squash (Nichols Farm squash braised with onions and golden raisins in a coconut-curry broth, served with roasted antique apples, toasted almonds, brown rice, and fresh cilantro).  I opted for the pizza.

Look at that arugula!!! The one downfall with flatbread is that it can get soggy pretty quickly, but this crust stayed crisp and held up hours later when I ate the leftovers. The vegetables were grilled and seasoned well. Maybe it’s because I’m turning veganese, but I can tell a fresh vegetable from one that’s been sitting in a cooler somewhere, and these veggies were FRESH. Duke’s doesn’t specify the vegan cheese they use, but this had the taste and texture of Daiya shredded mozzarella.

I would love to go back and try out every other vegan option that Duke’s has. The squash sounded really good, but seemed too heavy for lunch, especially before an activity-filled afternoon. I eavesdropped on a couple of ladies going over the menu, and one commented that the squash was really good.

Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen has a great vibe, a large beer menu, and is vegan-friendly. The service was friendly and it’s in a great location. Definitely check it out if you find yourself in the area. Or, plan a trip out there!

Visit Duke’s online at http://thedukeabides.com. –Melissa

One of the people I enjoy discussing food with is someone I’ve mentioned before, my friend Joelen (read her blog already, it’s not vegan, but it’s great). She introduced me to my new favorite vegan snack, which I will now introduce to you:

Hail Merry Grawnola!

I posted about Hail Merry’s Miracle Tart before. It was good, but I wasn’t really left wanting more. They have definitely hit it out of the ballpark with their Grawnola product, though.

Joelen brought me a couple bags of their orange cranberry blend. As you can see on the package, it’s raw, gluten-free, and vegan.
The mix contains almonds, buckwheat groats, pecans, dried apples and cranberries, sunflower seeds, walnuts, flax seeds… and it’s flavored with maple syrup, orange juice, vanilla, cinnamon, and sea salt. It occurs to me that one would easily make this mix on their own, but I’m going to leave the mixing and dehydrating to the experts.

The Grawnola is much more exciting than plain nuts, satisfies my sweet cravings that usually have me reaching for chocolate, and is just plain fun to eat. I’ve only tried it straight out of the bag, but I imagine that it would be awesome with mixed in with vegan yogurt or ice cream.

Yum… ice cream… ahem.

It’s great when I’m having a snack attack or as a quick pick-me-up after an intense work out (read: leisurely walk on the treadmill).

Look for Hail Merry Grawnola in stores or buy directly from them on their web site. Hail Merry also has a great presence on Facebook, so go Like them.

Have you tried Hail Merry Grawnola? What do you think? –Melissa

I previously made kare kare using soy curls and it was good, but I wanted to try something different this time. I didn’t want to drop a meat substitute altogether even though all-veggie kare kare would be satisfactory. I didn’t want to use tofu. I didn’t want to use mushrooms. I didn’t want to use squash.

So I used jackfruit — young, unripe jackfruit.

You can find canned young green jackfruit at any Asian grocery store. Make sure you get the jackfruit in brine, not syrup! It’s not to be confused with ripe yellow jackfruit, which is sweet (and delicious in halo halo… yum). I’ve seen unripe jackfruit used in savory dishes. Luminous Vegans has a great BBQ Jackfruit recipe that’s like a vegan pulled pork sandwich. My Mom adds it to dishes. There is a plethora of vegan Jackfruit ‘Carnitas’ Taco recipes on the Internet. With the shred-like texture of the jackfruit, some imagination and an open mind, the possibilities are endless.

Kare kare always seemed really complicated to me when I was younger and I realize now that it’s because of the meat component. You need to boil the oxtail. Sometimes, you need to boil it forever or use a pressure cooker, otherwise it won’t get tender and it’s just nasty. You need to skim out the garbage that shows up when you boil meat. And it takes a long time!

For vegan kare kare, you’re looking at maybe 15 minutes of prep time and 15 minutes of cook time.

Vegan Kare Kare with Jackfruit

1 can young green jackfruit in brine, drained and rinsed
1/2 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
eggplant, cut into 2″ chunks (enough to make approx 2 cups, any eggplant will do)
1 cup sitaw (Chinese long beans), cut into about 2 inch pieces — regular green beans are fine, too
bok choy (3 babies or 1 adult)
2-3 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tsp achiote powder (optional)
oil
salt, to taste

Rinse and chop up all your veggies. for the jackfruit, I cut the chunks that came out of the can in half or in thirds, depending on how big they were. I made them about the same size as the eggplant pieces.

Heat up the pan and saute the onion and garlic in oil. When it gets fragrant, add the jackfruit, eggplant, and 1 cup of water. Mix it a bit, cover, and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Add the sitaw/beans and bok choy, cover, and let it all cook for another 3-5 minutes.

Isn’t it pretty? The thing in the bottom middle is a piece of jackfruit.

When the veggies are just about cooked, stir things up a bit, being careful not to mash up any of the veggies. Then, make a well in the center of the pot and put in the peanut butter. The PB should melt completely. Add salt to taste. Add achiote if you want. It will give the dish a more reddish color. I didn’t add it this time around.

Serve with white rice and bagoong (not vegan!) or a bagoong substitute. If you have the green-floral-border Corelle plates that every Filipino-American seems to have, use that for sentimental value. Follow it up with some halo halo with sweet jackfruit if you can. I’m so hungry now.

I’m pleased with my kare kare and jackfruit experiment, but I have to say that I think jackfruit would work better in sinigang (another Filipino dish) instead. I have yet to try it as BBQ or in a taco. Looks like I’ve got a lot of cooking to do! –Melissa

They had so much fun. Rabbits aren’t appropriate outdoor pets, particularly in a place as hot as Florida. Bunnies don’t tolerate temperatures above 75F or cooler than 55F and there are too many stray dogs, feral cats and birds of prey to make me comfortable leaving the fat little morsels outdoors unsupervised even with the protection of a hutch. Instead we keep them inside so that they can dart out from under furniture and demand attention.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

This is Christie, signing off!

Bake at 450F/230C for 20 minutes. Remove the lid, toss the cauliflower, spraying lightly with corn oil and bake for 5 more minutes. Now toss to coat it with Buffalo sauce and bake for 10 more minutes. Watch it closely in case it starts to blacken around the edges.

This is a much lower calorie alternative to Buffalo wings and it’s great with vegan sour cream (or the creamy cilantro lime sauce we make) and celery. If you get to try it, let me know what you think!

This is Christie, signing off!

I cut up 2 pounds of apples and tossed them with 2 cups of Cascadian Farms Berry Cobbler granola. I baked it for 30 minutes at 350F and then set it out to cool a little before we ate it. This is just as good for breakfast as it is for dessert!

If you’re wondering why the apples look so pink, it’s because they’re mountain rose apples. I love them because they’re visually stunning and taste like honey crisp apples. Yay!

This is Christie, signing off!

So, here are the rules for this award;

1. Display the award badge on your blog

2. Announce your win with a post and link to whoever presented you with the award

3. Post 7 interesting things about yourself

4. Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers

5. Drop them a comment to tip them off after you have linked them in the post

7 ‘Interesting’ things about Myself:

1.  My cholesterol hovers between 120 and 130 but has been as low as 95 since I became vegan.
2. My haemoglobin has remained in the high end of the normal range since I stopped eating animal products.

3. I love pomegranates.

4. I don’t like doing chores because it means there’s less time to spend with my beloved and the bunnies.

5. Reading a book in bed while it rains is one of my favorite activities.

6. I enjoy knitting things for my friends, but I hate the actual process of knitting.

7. I hem my own jeans.

Blogs I award:

1. Live Blissful is written by a student who transitioned to vegan through blogging. I wish I’d been younger when I became vegan, so I live vicariously through her.

2. Sophie’s Foodie Files is one of my favorite international perspectives on healthy living. She makes me feel comfortable about traveling while vegan.

3. An Unrefined Vegan is one of my favorite source for food pornography. She’s always got something delicious going on over there.

4. Cameraphone Vegan is a blog that I love because they’re always cluing me into local vegan fare. Otherwise I’d just stay at home.

5. Bentoriffic</a> is exactly what it sounds like… charming thoughtful bento boxes of compassionate delicious!

6. The Beach House Kitchen always makes me pine for a picnic on the beach with one of their delicious raw meals or delicately spiced hot dishes.

7. Veg HotPot is a vegetarian blog that often posts enticing vegan dishes (recently a pizza recipe that made my eyeballs roll back in my head with anticipation and delight.)

8. The Vegan’s Husband is a blog about a guy who loves his lady enough to adopt her eating habits and then realized it’s kind of awesome. He does occasional AWESOME beer reviews which inspired Turning Veganese to review gluten-free beers and hard cider.

9. Bessie’s Veggie Food always picks up on seasonal favorites and takes them to a while other level.

10. Whatcha Reading makes me want a hot bowl of soup and my most recent novel for a rainy day reading adventure with some comfort food.

11. Luminous Vegans has long been a favorite of mine and I don’t see than changing anytime soon.

12. My Good Clean Food is a blog that’s as beautiful as it is informative.

13. I want to eat everything on The Misfit Baker’s blog.

14. Sometimes I wish Somer’s Veged Out was my home. I want to live there.

15. Canned Time is always inventive including vegan and gluten-free recipes. I like that.

Thanks again to Poppy! This is Christie, signing off!

You can start with Nacho Mom’s Vegan Queso or any other pre-made vegan queso or make your own.

Take your vegan queso and combine it with the following:
1 15 ounce tin of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 onion, diced and microwaved until soft
1 15 ounce tin of diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 package of Tofurkey soy Chorizo

Then we microwave it until it’s hot, stirring every thirty seconds. This is perfect for a gathering with friends, even omnivores!

This is Christie, signing off!

One of the rabbits we’re fostering from our local House Rabbit Society chapter to keep Vlad company took laziness to a whole new level.