I love October Vegan MoFos because the last day always falls on one of my favorite nights of the year: Halloween! I’ve been keeping my eye out for some spooktacular tricks and treats this month and wanted to share some of my favorite posts that are Halloween related.

Hope you all have a frightastic night. Be safe…. mwhahahahahahaha!

1) I know I would just die of happiness if someone put these chocolate covered kale chips into my treat bag. Adorably brilliant!

2) Hannah’s Halloween Rice is not only gorgeous but also a nice change of pace from the typically sticky sweet Halloween eats. Aren’t the colors just perfect for celebrating this spooky time of year?!

3) Kathy has the cutest freakiest recipe for witches brew soup… and if you wanna make the awesome cheesey broomsticks, then just sub in your favorite xgfx pizza dough!

4) I just love these little orange jack o lanterns from novel eats. I bet my kids would too!

5) This caramel corn milkshake  is beyond brilliant and I just love how cute the photo is.

6) These apple cinnamon chips look like they’d be the perfect accompaniment to those chocolate kale chips up there for scary movie watching.

7) Another fun (and healthy) Halloween inspired bevvie: Chocolate Covered Katie’s candy corn milkshake.

8) Melisser posted these crazy awesome candycorns years ago, and then Tiffany sparked my memory that I NEED TO MAKE THEM NOW. So should you.

9) I pretty much jumped up and down with joy wen I saw these fudge and pumpkin pie popsicles. Squeeee!

10) A perfect meal just before you induce your candy coma, these acorn squashes with persimmon quinoa filling look beautiful.

11) Annnnd, having a nice pumpkin pie martini Halloween nightcap always sounds like a good idea to me. Yum.

12) I love these green topped halloween cupcakes made with avocado and banana!

13) And finally folks, Home made butterfingers. Nuff said.

Thanks, dear readers, for following xgfx this year during VeganMoFo. And an extra super duper special thank you to all of our wonderful guest bloggers that made it possible to be a part of VeganMoFo this year. Seriously guys, there is no way Jessy, Kittee and I could have done it without you.

Photo by Julie of Shining from Within

You guys! It’s almost Autumn! That means the onslaught of pumpkin overload is about to hit the blogosphere. The idea of non-stop pumpkinage for the next couple of months really pleases this girl. Oh yes it does.

You wanna know another thing that pleases this girl? Muffins. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a muffin devotee–a fanatic, if you will. I’ve often been caught saying that muffins just may be the world’s most perfect food.  So imagine my delight when I came across these babies from Julie of Shining from Within! They are so darn cute and pumpkiny, and there’s tons of other delicious things lurking in there too, including cranberries and hemp seeds.

Photo by Julie of Shining from Within

‘Tis the pumpkin season! Rejoice!

Also! It’s almost another glorious time again… a time when the fine foodies of the  blogosphere come together and commit to sharing a solid month of vegan food. It’s Vegan MoFo 5! And it all starts on October 1st. We here at xgfx are gigantic MoFo fans and are always up for blogging non-stop about vegan eats for an entire month.

We’d love to include xgfx.org in all the fun, but we need your help! Since Kittee, Jessy, and I have our own blogs we’re gonna be tending to for Vegan MoFo this year, we won’t be able to keep up with xgfx.org as well. We already have an awesome list of generous people who’ve signed up to post here on xgfx, but we still need some more peeps to fill in the gaps!  You don’t have to be 100% vegan AND gluten free to write for us, just the content of your MoFo post does! It can be about anything xgfx food related that your heart desires–reviews, recipes, tips and/or tricks… you name it! You can even make those delicious pumpkin muffins up there and tell us about how much you loved them!

If that sounds like you, please email us at  contact [at] xgfx.org  or  just leave a comment right here on this post. Jessy, Kittee and I will get back to you with details asap. For those who’ve already responded and those who are about to: thank you so much!

<3

photo by Serena Norr

Happy Thursday!

To celebrate the hot and steamy weather we’ve been having around here, I’d like to show off this ingenious and amazing sounding recipe from Seriously Soupy, that I seriously have to make soon! I think you should too.

Almond and White Grape Gazpacho, people!

I wish a had a giant bowl of it right now… it looks SO perfect!

Hop on over to Serena’s awesome blog and check out her recipe here.

Beautiful Bubbles needs a home! She's in Philly!

Happy Tuesday, folks!

Here are a few things I’ve been excited about this week:

1. Kittee’s zine!!
2. pasta!!
3. nilla wafers!!
4. Thai noodles!!
5. scones!!
6. gallette!!
7. brownies!!
8. soufflé!!
9. bundt cake!!

and

10. ketchup chips? yes, ketchup chips!!

Huzzah!!!

We wanted to take a moment to thank all of the amazing folks who have contributed to recipes.xgfx and invite anyone out there who may not know about this part of our site to check it out!

recipes.xgfx is a community driven resource featuring recipes that are 100% gluten-free and vegan. There’s a ton of great stuff on there thanks to the generous folks who have shared with us!

there you’ll find these tasty treats (and many more!):

Scrumptious' Summer Bounty Gratin

River's Mint Chip Ice Cream

Erin's Onion Rings with Thai Dipping Sauce

Izzy's Creamy Fettuccine Alfredo with Carrot and Zucchini Pasta

Kat's Tofu Chocolate Pudding

Sarah's Amazing Homemade Vegan Bacon

Yum.

Thanks so much to everyone who has helped to make this growing resource what it is!!

If you enjoy creating your own xgfx recipes and would like to contribute, we’d be thrilled to have you share. It’s easy… just sign up here!

Happy Thursday!

Stonehouse 27 Cooking Sauces

When I first learned about Stonehouse 27 sauces (the label reads: “exotic indian without the effort”), I was all about trying them.

Six jars arrived to my house from the fine folks at Stonehouse 27, and since I was gifted this free sample from the company I had no idea that each jar sported a hefty price tag of about $6.50 USD per jar. I thought the price seemed a tad steep, and I was really hoping these sauces would live up to the cost.

From the looks of the jars, each with their own unique color and flavorings, I was excited to try them out. Plus, the colorful labels caught my eye! Sadly, I realized that two of the sauces were made with cows’ milk, so those never got taste-tested.

The vegan flavors include Tamarind and Garlic (mild), Tomato and Chilies (medium), Cilantro and Coconut (mild), and Dates and Tamarind (hot and sweet). It started off on a positive note when I instinctively flipped the jars around to read the labels and noticed that the vegan sauces contained nothing weird or scary:

Cilantro and Coconut Ingredients: Onions, Coconut Milk, Diced Tomatoes, Cilantro, Spices, GMO free Expeller Pressed Canola Oil, Garlic, Green chili, Apple Juice Concentrate, Pure Agave Nectar, Water, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Ginger, Mint, and Turmeric.

The first sauce I tried was the Cilantro and Coconut, a mild flavor that I served to my kids for lunch one day. I mixed up a quinoa pilaf and decided to see how the sauce could enhance it. Upon opening the jar I noticed a pleasant fragrance, but the flavor seemed bland. I immediately realized that these sauces weren’t intended for use “out of the jar” but needed some doctoring up to make them shine. So, I dutifully added some salt (check back up in the ingredients… no salt! great for modifying to your own tastes), and I also ended up throwing in some extra spices and some nooch for good measure.

The kids thought that the flavor was pretty good, but not similar to the Indian sauces we were used to from restaurants. I have to admit, I found it to be pretty bland. But, I was pleased with the convenience of simply pouring sauce from a jar to finish off our meal, since that’s a rare occurrence in our house.

For dinner, I thought I’d try the sauces out on my husband. Plus I was dying to see if there was a huge difference between the first sauce and the others. I planned to use the Tamarind and Garlic with some sautéed veggies, soycurls and basmati rice, but last minute ended up having to combine it with the Tomato and Chilies sauce just to have enough to cover a little less than 4 servings of veggies and soycurls. The flavors of the two jars merged well and together ended up tasting very similar to the flavor we had tried earlier. Again, a little embellishment was in order… this time I added some fresh herbs, garlic, salt, and a few chopped tomatoes. My husband’s reaction wasn’t quite as positive as the kids’ reactions at lunch time. He felt they still weren’t very flavorful even with my doctorin’.

A few days later I ended up using the Dates and Tamarind on a socca pizza. It was good… and this flavor was my favorite of the four. Compared to its “mild” counterparts, it was much more flavorful. It packed a little heat and was the perfect amount and consistency to slather on a personal sized pizza. And there was even some left over for crust dippin’!

All in all, I’m glad I tried the sauces, but I’ll be sticking to my regular homemade “Indian inspired” sauces for dinnertime…even if they’re not authentic whatsoever. ;)  But, these are great sauces to have around if you don’t mind the price tag, and are itchin’ for something convenient and not made simply for topping pasta.

pros:

• easy and convenient
• available in 4 vegan flavors
• small natural ingredient list

cons:

• kinda pricey
• only serves about 2 people
• not perfect “straight from the jar”… you need to know a thing or two about cooking if you want good results from this stuff

Reviewed by Allyson Kramer

oregano... great for mixing into all kinds of summertime eats!

It’s almost summertime in my part of the world… hooray! Since summertime is my favorite time of the year, this Tuesday’s linkage is dedicated to summer friendly foods!

First up, this video for Strawberry Prosecco Popsicles! These will be getting made in my kitchen very, very soon.

This fancy version of Waldorf salad from Beverly Lynn Bennett sounds delicious!

This Spicy Cauliflower with Olives by Soundly Vegan is a dish I’d be proud to bring to a summertime potluck!

Martha tells ya how to grill up some shiitake mushrooms… she used rosemary as skewers. Gah, I love her so.

Susan from Rawmazing always knows how to rock some jicama. Here she uses it in this summer friendly salad.

Have you been following JL’s vegan 101 series? It’s awesome–and  this post is all about eating more greens! Greens + Summer = Very Good Idea!

If you’ve haven’t made refrigerator pickles before (so easy!), here’s a great guide to get you started.

I love strawberry pie. And this raw strawberry pie from The Veggie Gal makes me super happy!

And finally, this rosemary lemon rhubarb spritzer would be a great thing to have in hand pretty much on any summer day. I sure wish I had one to sip on right now!

Photo by The Cinnamon Quill

To celebrate all the vegan and gluten free creativity that is continuously going on in the blogosphere, we’ve decided to occasionally feature some of our faves here on xgfx.

Photo by The Cinnamon Quill

So, I’d like to start things off with a enthusiastic shout out to The Cinnamon Quill and her amazing ability to transform the already perfect lemon bar into something even better: a lemon bar that features candied meyer lemons, and is vegan and gluten free.

Can I getta ‘hell yes!‘ ?

To me, lemon bars are one of those nostalgic foods that bring back happy childhood memories–full of sunny days and superfun get togethers with friends and family. There was always plenty of good food at these gatherings, but all I ever cared about were the lemon bars. Someone always brought lemon bars. If I were lucky, more than one person would bring them! They were, without a doubt, my favorite treat as a kid. Who can argue with a sweet, tart and fresh lemony yellow filling atop a shortbread cookie crust? Not I… no way. I was the kid who could easily polish off a whole tray of lemon bars by my lonesome if given the opportunity (fun and related fact: I still can, and I’d do it in a heartbeat with a tray of these babies in front of me. Who wants to send me some so I can prove it?).

Photo by The Cinnamon Quill

And now The Cinnamon Quill has gone and made a version that’s not only classier, but safe for vegans who don’t eat gluten! This girl is my hero! I mean, seriously… these may be the world’s most perfect food. And just look at those photos! Beautiful!

Check out this recipe… it’s truly a keeper.

I happen to be one of those lucky people who are extremely sensitive to gluten. My belly acts as a visible indicator, poking out almost within minutes of being exposed to even the teensiest amounts of gluten; and well, let’s just say the next few days aren’t exactly paradise for anyone in my household.

One of the offending foods to my belly: Tofutti’s Better than Cream Cheese. :(

Many other folks who have to eat a gf diet also seem to get a “glutened” reaction from it, and some even began asking questions. This is the response that has been given to a few inquiring minds (it is the same information given on Tofutti’s website FAQ’s):

Given the enormous difficulty we have in ensuring that all of our products are completely dairy free 100% of the time, the logistics in also ensuring that they would be gluten free is probably overwhelming. An additional problem is that unlike dairy free, where you can rely on an independent, outside verification service (kosher supervision), there basically is no such service for gluten

So my tummy and I opted to play it safe and avoid Tofutti cream cheese.

Again, :(

Yesterday, though, I witnessed something amazing. I was in a vegan friendly grocery stocking up on a few essentials when I saw a tub of Tofutti, glowing miraculously in the light of the display case. In big red letters on the side of the yellow and white Tofutti tub it read:

NO Gluten

what?! Since when?!

Awesome.

I scooped up two tubs of the supposedly “gluten free” stuff, and scurried happily home to share the news with my hubs. Once I got into my kitchen I didn’t hesitate a moment before shoving a big spoonful of it into my mouth. I realized I was taking a risk, but I was really curious to see if anything was different.

That spoonful tasted amazing. It tasted like the humble beginnings of New York style cheesecake, stuffed jalapeños, and cheese strudel muffins. Was it too good to be true? Thoughts of previous reactions started racing through my mind and suddenly I felt a bit apprehensive.

10 minutes passed. Nothing.

20 minutes…. still okay.

I knew then that something was different… but could it be true?

3 hours had gone by and you know what? Not a single notch went up on the ol’ belly indicator. This morning I giddily raced to email Tofutti hoping for their confirmation that better than cream cheese was now celiac friendly. Until I hear back, I’ll have to just assume that their new product is now totally xgfx… which may or may not be a very good idea.

Has anyone noticed any new wording on tubs of the non-hydrogenated Tofutti cream cheese? Anybody else also not get along with it prior to its package “re-design”? After?

Tofutti, wassup?

Olive is up for adoption in Wisconsin! Humane Animal Welfare Society of Waukesha County Waukesha, WI 262-542-8851 [email protected]

Happy Tuesday! Today we’re bringing the links.

1) ‘Tis the season for bunnies. If you can, please adopt! They need us. But before you do, read this adorable and honest guide about bunny care.

2) Hannah Kaminsky may have posted this on her blog last week, but trust me, I haven’t forgotten about it. Vegan Milk Chocolate!

3) Since it’s once again holiday season, there may be a few of us who will be or are currently partaking in a family gatherings. Worried it won’t go over so well? Have no fear, Bitt takes the edge off and offers her advice 10 tips about spending time with (non-vegan) family members.

4) And while you’re at that family gathering… this may help too:
Carol Adams in the Washington post breaking down the five myths about vegans.

5) We all love Nava Atlas, right? Guess what… she’s got a new book out: The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life and The Urban Vegan is giving away a signed copy… right now! Hurry and enter!

6) A simple socca recipe that couldn’t get more beautiful. Seriously, look at these photos!

7) And lastly, one more chocolate fix! I have some issues, what of it? This chocolate coconut pudding looks incredible. And it’s easy! Why am I typing this and not making some right this second?!