A Very Vegan Birthday

June is a big month for birthdays in my family.  First up was my sister's birthday.  So I thought . . . what a better gift than a blog post dedicated to her!  :)  Since my sister is vegan, I had to change things up a bit from what I am used to doing, and use a few ingredients that are strange to me.  I will say, Doug and I both ate this meal (even though he was a little nervous about it) and decided that if someone hadn't told us it was vegan, we would have no idea.  Some of the ingredients did not taste the same as the real thing out of the package, but when they were all mixed together, they turned out delicious.  
Kate, happy birthday!  Sorry you couldn't actually taste the meal (she lives in San Fransisco and I am in NYC), but know that this one was all for you!

Drink . . .

Bloody Mary

I asked Kate what her favorite drink was, and she said it was a Bloody Mary, so here we are.  I never had a Bloody Mary until a few weeks ago.  I was pretty repulsed by the thought of drinking one since I am not the biggest fan of tomato juice and the combination of ingredients sounded disgusting to me.  However, my cousin was visiting and ordered one at a bar.  I gave it a little sip and discovered that I actually do like them!  The one I made here is a pretty pathetic example of a Bloody Mary.  It doesn't have any delicious garnishes or anything.  Being a Bloody Mary novice, I wasn't quite sure what to add, so it's very basic, but still it was quite delicious!
Ingredients:

• tomato juice
• vodka
• lemon juice
• Worcestershire sauce
• hot sauce
• salt 
• pepper

Directions:

1. Fill a glass with ice.
2. Pour in 3 parts vodka to 6 parts tomato juice and 1 part lemon juice. 
3. Add a dash of hot sauce (or more if you like it spicy!), Worcestershire, and salt and pepper.
4. Stir and add a couple garnishes to make it more fun than mine!

Dinner . . .

Vegan Seven Layer Tortilla Pie

*recipe from The Vegan Coach
I found a lot of delicious looking vegan recipes in my search, but this was the one I thought I would be most likely to get Doug to eat.  I was going to cheat and just use real cheese instead of vegan cheese (because honestly the vegan cheese scares me), but I went all out and used the fake cheese.  Eating it straight out of the bag was pretty gross, but in the meal it worked out way better than I thought it would.  It actually did get melty and stretchy like real cheese.  We also happened to have some Soy Chorizo already, so I cooked up some of that and added it in as well (and I took out the Cannellini Beans because I'm not the biggest bean fan).  This was great the way I made it, and also would be great with non-vegan ingredients, even though I truly don't think anyone would know it was vegan.
Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup sweet red pepper, chopped
• 3/4 cup green pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup red onion, chopped
• 1/2 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chilis
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cups tomato juice
• 3 cups cooked black beans, or 2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, rinsed well and drained
• 3 cups cooked cannellini beans, or 2 (15 oz.) cans cannellini beans, rinsed well and drained
• 1 cup non-dairy cheddar cheese, grated (I like Follow Your Heart)
• 1 cup non-dairy mozzarella cheese, grated (I like Follow Your Heart)
• 6 (8-inch) flour tortillas

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add next 8 ingredients. Saute 5 minutes, or until tender. Add tomato juice. Cook 8 minutes or until reduced to 2 1/2 cups.
3. Combine black beans and half of tomato juice mixture in a bowl; stir well & set aside. Stir cannellini beans into remaining tomato juice mix; set aside.
4. Combine cheeses in a bowl; toss well. Line a 9" pie plate with foil, allowing 6 inches of foil to extend over opposite edges of pie plate. Repeat procedure, extending foil over remaining edges of pie plate. (At this point I lay down some parchment paper to avoid aluminum leaching).
5. Place 1 tortilla in bottom of dish over parchment paper and foil. Spread 1 cup cannellini bean mixture over tortilla. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheeses. Place 1 tortilla over cheeses, pressing gently. Spread 1 cup black bean mix over tortilla. Sprinkle with 1/4 cups cheeses. Place 1 tortilla over cheeses, pressing gently. Repeat layers, ending with remaining cannellini bean mixture and cheeses.
6. Cover with a piece of parchment paper, then bring edges of foil to center; fold to seal. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove foil packet from dish; unwrap pie, and slide onto a serving platter using a spatula. Cut into wedges.

Dessert . . .

Vegan Cherry Torte

*recipe from The Vegan Coach
I love cheesecake, especially cherry cheesecake.  This is not exactly the same thing, but it kind of reminded me of those no-bake cheesecakes.  Anyhow, it was really good, and again . . . it did not taste vegan!  It's super easy to make and great for the summer because it doesn't require baking and heating up the house with the oven (since I cheated and used the ready made graham cracker pie crust instead of making my own :)
I will say, after this meal I am a little more broke though—vegan ingredients are expensive!
Ingredients:

• 1 package Dream Whip, or 2 packages Soyatoo Soy Whip, made according to package directions (I couldn't find these, so I just bought a can of soy whipped cream from Whole Foods and it worked just as well)
• 1 (8 oz.) package dairy-free cream cheese
• 1 cup organic powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 can prepared cherry

Directions:

1. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla.
2. Prepare whipped topping according to package directions (or just spray it out of the can like me). Fold into cream cheese mixture.
3. Spread cream cheese/whipped cream combo over crust. Cover with cherries. Refrigerate overnight, or at least several hours. Cut into pieces and serve.