Green Elephant Birthday Dinner

On Saturday night, J took me out for my birthday to Green Elephant on Congress Street in Portland, Maine. The Green Elephant is, without a doubt, my favorite restaurant in Maine. Everything is vegan or vegetarian and Asian inspired. Food is made with fresh, local ingredients and the restaurant's decor is simple, but elegant.

We showed up and were told it would be a 20 minute wait, so we popped in next door to Downtown Lounge for a glass of wine. No sooner did we sit down and get our glasses when the buzzer went off - shortest 20 minute wait ever! We downed our wine, apologized to the waitress explaining that we don't normally chug nice glasses of wine, and were seated at the Green Elephant within minutes. Our waitress, one we'd never had before, was so kind and attentive. We started by sharing two appetizers - soy nuggets with chili sauce and green leaves wrap with mango and herbs. The soy nuggets - oh man - we want to figure out how to make them so badly! They are crispy on the outside and have so much flavor. The green leaves wraps were a refreshing raw appetizer made with very fresh ingredients.

Soy Nuggets

Green Leaves with Mango & Herbs

Although we were celebrating, we wanted to keep with our plan of eating healthy and curbing portions sizes so we shared the Siamese Dream Curry Noodle dish. So delicious and just the right amount by sharing. We didn't feel stuffed when we left, just satisfied. I'd suggest sharing dishes if you're trying to lose weight or just maintain if you're the kind of person who has trouble not cleaning your plate. I was always taught to finish everything and when I try to go out to eat and tell myself I'll only eat half and will take the rest home, it normally doesn't pan out so well. So sharing a dish ensures that you'll only eat half and believe me, at most restaurants, half is enough! 

Siamese Dream Curry Noodle

If you're ever in Portland, Maine, the Green Elephant is the place to go. The prices are comparable to the service and quality, the atmosphere is charming and modern, and the food is the best vegan food you'll find around! 

Cookies, Cookies, Curry, and Udon

This weekend was a doozy. I had a spinal injection done on Friday and, although I should have been off my feet for a majority of the weekend, I had things to do! In the last week I've had 3 baking orders come in for shipping this week. It all just hit me at the same time. So on Saturday I just worked for an hour or so, then laid down for a while, then worked for a while, then laid down...you get the picture. It was pretty annoying and made the baking take SO much longer. By Sunday evening I had completed batches of my vegan Mud Puddle Cookies, Treasure Chest cookies, sugar cookies, and had the dough ready for Linzer Tarts chilling in the fridge.

Vegan Mud Puddle Cookies

Photo by Justin Lewis, filmaperture Photography

Vegan Treasure Chest Cookies

Photo by Justin Lewis, filmaperture Photography

So in the interest of making things easy for dinner, I turned to my favorite recipe source, Post Punk Kitchen. I brought up Isa's Broccoli Curry Udon recipe and got to work. A few changes - we didn't have any red onion, so we used shallot instead and I don't like my onion crunchy like she suggests so I cooked it until it was translucent. I added about a cup of edamame and a handful of mushrooms and yellow bell pepper for some color, texture, and sweetness.

I made it just like she suggested, but next time I may just throw it all in the wok instead of cooking everything separately. It's still a super easy recipe, either way, and very quick to throw together. 

After dinner, I whipped up 2 batches of my vegan royal icing and got to work icing the first coat on my sugar cookies for a 4th of July cookie order that needs to be shipped by tomorrow at the latest! Eeep! Cutting it close. I was up until midnight icing these guys. This evening I've got to put the finishing decorating touches on them - I'll get a MUCH earlier start than last night - let them dry all night, get up early and package them and then I should be all set.

And then it's off to finish the Linzer Tarts (probably on Tuesday night) and get that package out the door. Phew! I shouldn't complain; I'm always trying to drum up business, which is really hard when you're just starting out, and I'm so thankful for friends who think of me when they want a vegan treat, are having a party, or need to get a special present out to someone. I'll just need to take it easy for the rest of the week to make sure my back heals properly!

And that leads me to asking for your help - I'm on a quest to find a really excellent nutrition/health book that talks about vegan nutrition but also gives suggestions for how various foods/herbs/supplements interact with our bodies and how we can be more in-tune to getting our bodies what they need. I want to learn this stuff and really understand what's going on in my body and how I can make myself feel more healthy. I'm only 26 and sometimes I feel like my body's trying to fall apart on me. Anyone out there have any suggestions?

Hurrrry! Make some curry!

Lately we've been eating a lot of curry dishes...um, yum. I was surfing Facebook and VegWeb highlighted a recipe for Curry Salad that sounded intriguing so I prepared it two nights ago. I gotta tell you friends, this recipe is a ten star winner! It takes a bit of time to prepare, so don't be in a hurry and keep in mind it'll take you more than one day.

Wheat berries are the second ingredient on the list. Wheat berries? I'd had them in various prepared salads from Whole Foods and other eateries in the past, but I had never prepared them, nor did I even know what they are! So wheat berries are the entire wheat kernel (except for the hull), comprised of the bran, germ, and endosperm. To prepare them, it's best to let them soak in water over night, just as you would dried beans. For this recipe, all we did was soak them over night and use them raw like that instead of cooking them. They have a crunchy, hard texture, almost like a seed, but add wonderful texture to salad, and are packed with fiber, protein, and numerous vitamins.

I was a bit skeptical when the salad called for vegan mayo and yogurt. I HATE normal mayo and am still trying to train myself into realizing that Veganaise is NOT mayonnaise. My eyes see the white, gooey, mixture and immediately think it's mayo (which I sarcastically name "the Satan's semen"). And soy yogurt? I've just never been a fan. BUT - when both of these ingredients combine with Dijon mustard, sugar, curry and chili powder, turmeric, paprika, ginger, salt and pepper....whoa nellie! It's a winner!

We didn't add in the raisins because I'm not the biggest fan and we added two carrots for texture, flavor and well because we recently bought a 5 lbs bag and need to use carrots in everything we cook!

In summary - try this recipe! It's awesome and healthy!