Boots’ menu changes daily and includes GF and Vegan options created by Owner, Alison Collins based on available produce and will include soups, salads and quiches.

Collins is semi famous in the Spokane community for her amazing vegan baking, especially her vegan carrot cake at Mizuna.  The new bakery and lounge is located in the old Rocket Bakery next to the Main Market downtown and the environment is relaxed, comfortable and welcoming.  The wood bar and handpainted tables (by Tiffany Patterson’s Art)  add a unique touch, the service is friendly and inviting so you feel comfortable just hanging out.  It is the perfect environment for your morning coffee, meeting for lunch or casual dinner & a cocktail atmosphere. The entree and salad choices are displayed case style and are very clearly marked if gluten free and/or vegan so no need to worry or ask for details on the preparation if you are vegan or needing to eat gluten free. Many of the daily options are also soy free, but you will need to ask regarding soy as the menu changes daily.

On a recent visit I tried the GF vegan enchilada pie, which was an amazing mix of flavor, yet not too overwhelming - served beautifully on brightly colored plates.    Of course I had to try a fresh baked peanut butter chocolate chip cookie too which didn’t disappoint! I will definitely be back (probably often) and find myself wishing I still worked downtown to make dropping in easier!

Boots Bakery & Lounge

24 W Main, Spokane, WA (next to Main Market)

Hours: Sun-Tue, 6a-6p & Wed-Sat, 6a-close.

509-703-7223

http://www.facebook.com/bootsbakerylounge

http://www.bootsbakery.com/

The North location is located in Hillyard, don’t let that keep you away or from ordering for delivery. Think of all the eclectic neighborhoods in Portland where you can find amazing vegan cuisine. This location also has weekly deliveries of vegan cupcakes too! Who doesn’t love cupcakes!

So obviously I recently had one of those days that I just didn’t want to cook- I had heard that Red Dragon had a vegan menu so decided to give it a try. My family was not disappointed! The delivery time was a little long, but worth the wait. We tried the Vegan Spring Rolls which came with a sweet chili sauce, the Spinach pot stickers (unique surprise), along with vegan teriyaki stir fried vegatables & vegan crispy teriyaki tofu with brown rice. Surprisingly, the crispy tofu was still crispy and not too mushy upon arrival and the chef was not skimpy on the pineapple.

The vegan muenu has all the usual Chinese food offerings, General’s, Sweet & Sour, Chow Mein, Fried Rice and many more to choose from- I think I will try the Vegan Szechuan Spicy Cabbage next time.  The prices are reasonable and the portions quite large- you will have left overs in the cute little boxes… but not for too long!

Where to Find:

North: 3011 E. Diamond, 483-6700

Downtown: 1406 W Third, 838-6688

The idea of using a cupcake pan (muffin tin) for baking mini meals is an exciting new trend! I have found it to be a great way to monitor portion control and have easy to serve leftovers to send in lunches the following day.

A little late to jump in on this muffin tin trend, I was excited to create my first mini meal using the cupcake pan and was quite surprised with the results- and my family loved it!

I modified my favorite lasagna recipe and created the mini lasagna recipe below which is super easy already, but can be made even easier and faster if you chose. Instead of reconstituting the TVP, you could purchase a ground meat substitute like Boca Ground Crumbles or Yves Veggie Ground Round for your base and use a canned spaghetti sauce (several are vegan) and your prep time goes down to about 2 minutes!

Here’s what you need for my version:

1 cup Vegetable Broth

1 cup TVP Granules

1 tsp Olive Oil

½ cup diced Onion

3 cloves minced Garlic

½  tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

½ cup chopped mushrooms

3 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried basil

14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes

24 small square Wonton wrappers (read your labels- not all are vegan!)

1 ½ cups Daiya (or other vegan) Mozzarella shreds

Preheat your oven to 375ºF and spray your 12 count muffin tin with a nonstick cooking product.

Bring the Vegetable Broth to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the TVP- set aside.

In skillet, heat up the oil and sauté the onion and garlic. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, basil and mushrooms; continue to simmer about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the tomatoes and then the TVP mixture.

Place one Wonton wrapper into the bottom of each of the cups in your muffin tin- press into the bottom of the cup and along sides.

Using half of the TVP mixture, spread into the 12 muffin cups and sprinkle a layer of Daiya on top of the “meat” mixture. Then, gently press another wonton wrapper on top of the mozzarella layer.

Repeat the process by distributing the TVP again and top with the rest of the shredded mozzarella.

Bake for just 10-12 minutes (or until the cheese has melted), let cool a couple minutes for ease of lifting out of pan and serve. How easy is that!

• 1 package Double Stuffed Oreos
• 4 oz. Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese,
• Vegan Chocolate Chips

Let chocolate set, refrigerate or freeze and enjoy!

Instead of the traditional pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, try a twist and make a Pumpkin Cake.
This cake is really simple to make and as much as I LOVE pumpkin pie  (I really do- I could eat it for breakfast, lunch  and dinner!), this cake makes me just want more!

It turns out really moist like spice cake, but still tastes like pumpkin pie.
Slice it up and top with a dollop of the cream cheese frosting and what do you have?  Pumpkin Heaven!

The cake is really easy to make and here’s how you do it:
For the cake, preheat  your oven to 350 degrees, then,
Mix all of these ingredients
together first:
1/4 cup Soy Free Earth Balance
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 can of plain pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract

Then you can add in this stuff:
2 cups pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 cup Rice milk
Now pour into a sprayed glass loaf pan and put into the oven for about 30 minutes.
Cool the cake and then you can spread the frosting on the entire loaf, or slice it and do frosting dollops like I did- it’s kinda fun that way!
Here’s  how to make the frosting,
Mix together these things first:
One container vegan cream cheese
1/4 cup soy free Earth Balance
2 tbsp Pure Maple Syrup (KID TIP: by the way, don’t ever try this stuff alone on your pancakes- trust me!)

Then add 3 cups powdered sugar slowly (so you don’t send it flying all over the
kitchen) and beat until nice and smooth.
Now you are ready to put the frosting on the cake and eat up!  I hope you like it!

For many families Thanksgiving and football go hand in hand, ours is no different. We play football every Thanksgiving morning. It’ a great way to see friends and family that won’t be at the same dinner, and it also gives us a chance to work off some of that food we’ll be eating later that day. This year I’ve been toying with the idea of giving out football themed cookies to everyone that participates, so thought I better do a test run and figure out which sugar cookie recipe I loved and felt confident in giving others. I only had time to test the recipe featured on John and Kristie’s blog.  The cookies had a great texture, and I’m pretty sure you could give them to non-vegans and they’d have no idea they were eating a vegan cookie! The cookies aren’t super sweet, so you can eat more than one and not feel as if you overdid it on sugar. As suggested in the recipe I used almond flavoring in the icing, next time I might mix it up and do lemon or orange.

If you plan on making these sugar cookies, I suggest making the dough the night before. Like most sugar cookies the dough needs to be refrigerated and if you plan on making them with kids, no kid is patient for the refrigeration process.

These cookies would be perfect for sending to a friend or family member out of town as long as you didn’t get super creative with the shapes. Cookies without tiny details are less likely to break. Make sure you wrap them well and they’ll still be soft by the time they reach excited recipients. Oddly enough, I think these cookies taste better the day after baking them instead of fresh out of the oven.

Enjoy!

The restaurant is decorated in a comic book theme, with comic books as part of  the menu as well as adorning the walls. There are also plenty of 80’s albums and pop icon posters throughout to  keep you entertained while waiting for your dinner.   To  keep young ones happy, the kid’s meal also has a comic book theme and is served  on a comic book super hero plate.

It isn’t enough to know you can order a vegan pizza at
Pacific Avenue Pizza- the real question is, how does the pizza taste? On a
recent family visit, we tried a couple different pizzas and were more than
satisfied with our choices.  To start the
meal, we ordered garlic bread sticks.

The vegan variety of the garlic breadsticks are made with vegan pizza dough and a generous
sprinkling of garlic and spices.  These bread  sticks were not too dense and dipped in the accompanying spicy tomato sauce  disappeared very quickly!  These are a  bargain at $4.00!

Not being able to decide on a pizza to order, we ordered two;  a vegan Pepperoni and a vegan “Dirty Sanchez”.

Neither pizza disappointed!  As  you can see, the pepperoni was generously topped with vegan cheese and lots of  pepperoni.  The sauce was tangy but not so  much as to overpower the zesty pepperoni flavor and it really had a genuine pizza texture.

The “Dirty Sanchez” resembles a taco pizza with its salsa  instead of pizza sauce, black beans, onions, olives, cilantro and vegan cheddar  and vegan mozzarella cheeses. This pizza was quite surprising with an intense flavor!  The crust was cooked well, which is often  difficult to accomplish with a pizza this big and with the amount of toppings  included.  This pizza was as good as it  looks and heated up well for left-over’s too!
The large pizzas at Pacific Avenue Pizza are 16 inches with huge  slices! It’s important to add that although not specifically stated on the  menu, a vegan order is considered a specialty pizza, so the price is $3.00 more  than the listed menu price- but totally worth it!

There is quite a selection of domestic beer and micro brews at Pacific Avenue to accompany your pizza.  On this visit, we tried the vegan friendly
Lost Coast Brewery Tangerine Wheat Ale.    Lost Coast brews this citrus ale with a
combination of wheat and crystal malts, finished with Perle hops and natural
tangerine flavors, making a  refreshing  and light ale that has become a new favorite!

Pacific Avenue Pizza has a menu that is more diverse than
pizza, including many salads and sandwiches.  The service was excellent and the restaurant was clean, this place is a definite must  try!

Pacific Avenue Pizza is located at 2001 W Pacific Ave  Spokane, Washington 99201.

I’m one of those people cursed with super sensitive skin, I buy products specifically made for sensitive skin and somehow a few days later my face still looks like Samantha’s from Sex and The City when she got the chemical peel the day of Carrie’s book party. When I find a product that doesn’t make my face breakout, look like I’ve suffered severe burns, or even swell I know it’s a product I’ll love for a long time.

These days all the magazines are raving about face primer. I’ve been a huge fan of eye shadow primer for years now, it really does make your eye shadow last and stay crease free all day so when I heard about face primer I knew I had to find one that worked and wouldn’t ruin my skin. That’s where Laura Geller comes in.  Laura Geller products are vegan and unique because they are baked.  With a variety of primers to choose from you can find your best match a clear one to hide your pores, and make your skin look super smooth or even a tinted one that you can wear alone for days when you are in a hurry and want your skin to look flawless.  I like to use Spackle Tinted Under Makeup Primer in Bronze, it’s great for under my foundation or alone. Never once has it made my face breakout, or cause me discomfort in any way and the best part- it lasts ALL DAY! I absolutely hate looking in the mirror at lunchtime and seeing that all of my makeup has somehow disappeared!

We all know tanning is awful for us, yet who doesn’t like they way they look when tan and glowing?! That’s where the Laura Geller bronzers come in. They look natural, and magically match your skin tone. I use my bronzer everyday- even in the winter!

I haven’t had the chance to try all Laura Geller products yet, but so far so good! They are long lasting, cruelty free, and gentle on sensitive skin!

For more information check out the Laura Geller website.

Locally Laura Geller products can be purchased at Ulta (Northtown Square- 4727 N Division Street). You can also order them online. QVC, Laura Geller, Macys, Beauty.com and several other sites.

Christmas is only 48 days away, which means cookie exchange parties will be here even sooner. I haven’t decided what kind of cookies to make this year for the big cookie exchange party so decided I better start experimenting this weekend. Today I made a vegan version of Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies, also known as Chocolate Susans. These cookies are not for someone who is short on time- usually any recipe involving a cookie press isn’t!  I don’t think they’ll be the cookies that I bring to Christmas parties this year (I’m looking for something more festive and unique) but they were a total hit in my house today.

Cookie Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• ½ cup corn starch
• 2 Tbs  Vanilla extract
• 2 cups Earth Balance
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• ½ cup vanilla almond milk
• 1 ½ tsp salt      

Directions: In large bowl combine sugar, Earth Balance, salt and vanilla extract with hand mixer. Mix for several minutes until the mixture is very creamy. Stir in the almond milk. Slowly add dry ingredients (flour and corn starch).  

You can use a cookie press or pastry bag to make star or flower cookies.  Fill your pastry bag, or cookie press with batter and squeeze onto cookie sheet. Once you have a cookie sheet full, press small dents into the center of each cookie (this is where your chocolate filling will go). Bake at 350° for about 12 minutes.  When you pull the cookies out you may have to press the small dents again- depending on how much chocolate you’d like in each cookie. Let cool on wire rack.

Once the cookies are semi cool you can fill with chocolate. Make sure not to overfill, it will make a mess. Let cookies and chocolate filling cool at room temperature for two hours before serving- if you’re impatient go ahead and put in the freezer for a few minutes. The cookies taste much better at room temperature than cold.

Chocolate Filling Ingredients:

• ½ cup vanilla almond milk
• 2 Tbs maple  syrup
• 1 cup semi sweet vegan chocolate chips

Directions:  Boil milk and syrup on high heat. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until smooth. Let cool before adding to cookies.

*I like my Chocolate Susan’s a little on the salty side so feel free to cut the salt amount in half if you don’t feel the same way.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1 can Rotelle
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can sweet corn
• 1 packet Uncle Dan’s Original
• 1 packet taco seasoning (make sure to read the ingredients- many of these have milk of lactose)

Directions: Mix all the ingredients in the crock-pot. Do not drain any of the cans! Let simmer on low for at least two hours.  Our house is torn on the olive issue, but if you like them they’d be a great addition. Serve with vegan sour cream and tortilla chips.

Serves about 5 people.