Amber Eats Veg Presents: This Vegan Lyfe

I haven't had a hush puppy in years; mainly because they almost always have buttermilk in themand because I don't live in the south anymore. When you grow up on southern food, it's hard not to be disappointed when try non-southern replicas of your childhood flavors.

My grammy used to take me to this restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama on the regular called, Seafood World. We would get one order of hushpuppies (probably 50-60 mounded in one of those red plastic bins, lined with red and white checkered paper) and Grammy would make her secret sauce for us to dip them in (which was just equal parts tarter and cocktail sauce mixed together). We'd talk and bond for about an hour while feasting on those hushpuppies.

And today when I bit into my first hush puppy in who-can-remember-how-long I was taken back to my formative, grammar school age years with my grammy. I couldn't help but smile and feel her presence within my soul. A woman loved and missed greatly by her granddau…

So BandMan, VegKid, and our cat, God, moved into a new house recently and it's fabulous. The kitchen is to-die-for adorable and has a dishwasher! Oh how I've missed a dishwasher. Granted, hand washing dishes has become quite therapeutic for me over the past two years, but cleaning up after a dinner party (which we have a lot) can be a real bitch with out the convenience of such a wondrous machine.
- Whoa man, I got myself way off track here...back to the new house and stuff. -
Look a the picture below; do you see that blurry background? It's our new glorious back yard. Hopefully you can make out the beautiful trees, spacious yard, extra large playset for VegKid, and the garden.

Putting in the garden was one of the first things I did when we moved in. In fact, manual labor, expertise, and fertilizer were my housewarming gifts from the ever sexy, always lovely, PaleoChick (thanks again, babe). Next to that garden, I've got a huge pot with tomatoes and chives growing in i…

This is the ultimate fast food. If your lentils are already cooked this dish takes about 25 minutes to get just right, but the flavors don't act like it. They are rich, surprisingly complex, super savory, and not the faintest hint of "health food" taste.  But guess what? It's totally health food.

Lentils have a shit ton of protein, enough in fact, to make it the third-highest protein producing legume or nut (the #1 spot goes to hemp, followed by the soybean in protein spot #2).

And she's not just good on the protein, one cup of lentils a day gives you over half of your recommended iron allowance, which is kind of a big deal.

You know what else is a big deal? Fighting cancer; apparently that's broccoli's favorite thing to do. It's basically a superhero veggie. His only job is to stop cancer from ever showing it's face. Whether or not that's true, or just hyperbole, doesn't matter. If it's not some crazy awesome anti-cancer body protes…

Sometimes you crave chocolate and all you have is cocoa powder and the ingredients for cornbread. Thus, chocolate cornbread. Don't sneer! It's fucking delicious. As a matter of fact, I didn't even get to eat a slice before BandMan and VegKid demolished the whole thing.

I know my Southern readers find this to be blasphemous but seriously the tiny tester bite I had was other worldly (in a good way.) I'm going to have to secretly make this again soon!




2/3 c cocoa powder, unsweetened
2/3 c rice flour
2/3 c cornmeal
2/3 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 super ripe banana
1/3 c oil
1 c almond milk
preheat to 400mix all dry ingredients togethermix all wet ingredients togethercombine 'empour into a greased 8x8 inch baking dish.bake for 25-30 minutes

Have you VegHeads ever made Chirashi? The word means "scattered" in Japanese; so basically chirashi is a one bowl meal with all the flavors of sushi and none of the rolling (I'm pretty bad at it, myself).



Just take all your favorite sushi roll ingredients and layer them on a bed of sushi rice (here's a basic recipe). I served this Chirashi with mung bean sprouts, avocado, jalapenos, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, carrots, smoked tofu, cucumber, baby corn, sliced nori wraps, mushrooms marinated in ponzu sauce (here's a basic recipe), extra ponzu for dipping, pickled ginger, and wasabi.

WOO!