Galactic Pizza is a quaint little pizza place in Minneapolis. There are several quaint little pizza places in town, but this one is special because they serve vegan pizza. As in vegan cheese, vegan sausage and vegan pepperoni. So of course I hopped at the chance to check it out.

The style of the restaurant is kind of a mish-mash. We sat outside and were shielded by an umbrella made of fake hoola skirt grass. The service was very good and we ordered vegan garlic cheese bread. Super yummy, though, as with many cheeses, this cheese had some melting issues. We ordered a pizza of half vegan cheese, half vegan “old school”. The Old School contains tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sausage, button mushrooms, organic green peppers, and organic red onions. It was pretty good. Not amazing, and not bad. It wasn’t quite as delectable as Este Pizza’s vegan cheese in Salt Lake, but it’s nice to know we have another vegan pizza place near by. The vegan sausage was pretty tasty. The vegan pepperoni was ok, but I don’t think I really liked pepperoni when I ate meat, 14 years ago. So perhaps I should try different toppings next time. Most of the pizzas they offer can be made vegan or vegetarian, which is great. And they have quite a few interesting options to choose from.

You can check out their menu here: http://www.galacticpizza.com/menu/

The website is kind of cooky, kind of funny. It’s the second restaurant in a row I’ve gone to which has a superhero theme on their site. The first was The Bad Waitress. This is also the first year I attended Comic-Con and I’m in the process of writing a comic book right now (don’t hold your breath). I’m just bombarded by superheroism these days.

Galactic Pizza
www.galacticpizza.com
2917 Lyndale Ave S
Uptown Minneapolis, MN

Side note on vegan cheese: we may not have to put up with the less than ideal vegan cheeses much longer. There is a company in Brooklyn called Dr. Cow creating some apparently heavenly gourmet vegan cheeses. You know, cheeses that come in a wheel instead of a plastic sleeve. And they’re raw! They use old methods of cheese making but use it for making nut cheeses like aged cashew. Apparently the few stores that sell these nut cheeses can’t keep them in stock! Hopefully they’ll be spreading their wings soon so we can all enjoy some gourmet nut cheeses. Wine and cheese parties, here we come! Read more about it in this month’s issue of VegNews.

I just received information that an American director, based out of London, named Ryan Vance is working on making a romantic comedy that promotes veganism. I believe it’s going to be called “Vegan Love”. It will be a fictional short film and not a documentary which is a bit less common. I’m excited to see it when it comes out. So, I guess he’s holding a fundraiser to pay for completion costs. You can get more info here: http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/vegan-comedy-fundraiser

Anyway, if this is a cause you’d be interested in putting money towards, by all means! Sorry I don’t know much more than this. But I thought I’d throw it out there for you. Here’s a picture of the vegan filmmaker. He looks friendly. I’ll let you know if and when it will be available for public viewing once I find out.

Here are some items I’m digging lately (and no, I am not payed or bribed to promote anything):

Blueberry Vanilla Crackle Granola Planks (other flavors available)

I love the versatility of these things. You can eat them as bars, breaking off whatever size you want, or crush them up in a bowl as cereal. They’re incredibly tasty. Note: they are produced in a non-vegan facility. http://www.honest-foods.com/granola_planks.html

Newman’s Own Asian Sesame Natural Salad Mist (other flavors available)

For only 1 calorie per spray it adds a world of flavor to your salad. This stuff blows my mind. And Newman’s Own is, of course, a great company to buy from since all of their profits go to thousands of charities worldwide. The questionable ingredient would be sugar but since they are a company known for being natural and organic, I’m thinking the sugar is probably vegan. If anyone knows for sure, lemme know. http://newmansown.com

Café FAIR Shade Grown Organic Cordilleran Coffee (other flavors available)

This coffee tastes delicious. Add a little Vanilla Silk Creamer and you’re in heaven. In addition, it is fair trade and shade grown (which supports the ecosystem by not using deforestation methods). http://cafefair.com/

Amy’s Quarter Pound Veggie Burger

These things are fantastic. Throw it on a George Foreman grill for a couple of minutes, if you have one. It’s jam-packed with great organic ingredients. It’s the most robust veggie burger I’ve ever had. Very filling. www.amys.com

Something about 50s style diners just makes my heart sing. I love the cozy retro atmosphere. I love the vintage posters. I love booth seating (with the exception of the leather seats), bar stools and the casual yet classic mid-century modern design. So when browsing through http://www.vegguide.org for a good vegan-friendly restaurants in Minneapolis, I was stoked to find The Bad Waitress.

The Bad Waitress was built in 2005, and pays tribute to the diners that once existed in Minneapolis. One reason it’s called the Bad Waitress, which my boyfriend and I realized 10 minutes after arrival, when no one came to take our order, is… well just that. No one comes to take your order (it is also a throwback to pulp fiction book titles and reminiscent of a time when “bad” meant “awesome”). So instead, there are pads of paper on your table. You fill out the ticket yourself and bring it up to the cash register. I like this method, because sometimes it takes me a long time to decide what I want and I have to make the waiter keep coming back. Other times I know exactly what I want and don’t feel like waiting for my order to be taken. So there you go. Also, me filling out the order and writing in caps and underlining VEGAN on the sheet makes it more likely that my order will be delivered sans animal parts.

Another plus, which my boyfriend was delighted by, is they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner all day. And, though the restaurant isn’t entirely vegan, they do have several options to choose from like the tempeh scramble, black bean burger, portabella mushroom sandwich, veggie chili, grilled tempeh reuben, farfalle pasta, ingredients for building your own pizza, add-ons like vegan sausage and tofu and more! And meals that come with cheese, you can just ask for no cheese. And note that if you order the American fries, these are actually seasoned potatoes and not French fries, which I think is lovely.

So if you’re in Minneapolis and you’re in the mood for some yummy vegan greasy spoonage and a quaint diner atmosphere, do see the Bad Waitress for a bad (awesome) time. I know I’ll be back!

The Bad Waitress Diner & Coffee Shop
http://www.thebadwaitress.com/
2 E. 26th St. Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 872-7575

For those using Internet Explorer, you may have noticed there was some cooky stuff going on with my site. BUT it seems to be fixed now!!! (unless you are one of the very few using IE 5 on a mac -like my sister-tisk tisk) I say very few because according to my analytics, of all the people that have viewed my site, only 3 people viewed my site in this manner. Note: they do not make updates for Internet Explorer on Macs so if you have a Mac, use Firefox or Safari. Otherwise you’ll be in a world of frustration when nothing works right. End tangent.

SO, for those of you who were unable to leave comments, due to the nonexistent “submit comment” button, or the masterminds who somehow managed trick your comments into submission by hitting return after selecting the name field (I stand amazed), you can rest easy and please please- leave comments! Embrace these new-found commenting abilities.

Thank you for your patience and enjoy!

(reference to previous post: http://www.happyvegetable.com/blog/reasons-i-hate-internet-explorer/)

HOORAY!! I’ve opened a Cafe Press store for you to enjoy. It’s filled with shirts, mugs, buttons, stickers, magnets, and more! Check it out! And I’ll keep adding items, and switching up what I’m selling, so check back often! If you’re happy to be vegan, show the world! We should be proud of ourselves. Being vegan isn’t always easy but it is certainly rewarding. Give yourself a pat on the back, and perhaps throw in a magnet!

Check it out here: http://www.cafepress.com/happyvegetable

My boyfriend is a huge pizza fan. And I noticed we had some garlicy pita bread in the fridge that needed to be used. Pita bread really is the perfect size and thickness for a personal pizza crust. This is a super easy, healthy, and delicious recipe.

Ingredients for two pizzas:

• 2 pieces of pita bread (without pockets)
• 2 fresh tomatoes (puréed)
• 1/4 - 1/2 C fresh basil chopped
• 2 gourmet baby bella mushrooms (sliced)
• 1/8 C pine nuts
• 1/4 C vegan mozzarella (shredded)
• 1 clove garlic

Now obviously you can put as much or as little of these ingredients on as you want. And another thing I like to add to homemade pizzas is chik patty or chik’n nuggets chopped up. Just make sure the ones you buy don’t contain egg.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Blend 2 fresh tomatoes and clove of garlic until it’s the consistency of sauce (if you don’t have a blender or food processor you can buy a can of tomato sauce and add minced garlic on top of the pizza, or you can make a no-sauce pizza and just slice the tomatoes). Strain out some of the excess water from the tomatoes. Spread onto pita. Add chopped basil, sliced mushrooms and pine nuts and vegan mozzarella. Bake pizzas for about 13 minutes. And enjoy!

I was browsing through other vegan blogs today trying to decide what I was going to make for dinner. If you haven’t heard of the blog Vegan Yum Yum, you really must check it out. It’s a 2008 winner of the Veg Bloggy Awards, and for good reason. Lolo, the creator of the blog, makes the most decadent dishes (and is apparently working on writing her own cookbook!). And they look even more decadent due to her incredible photography. Each dish is a work of art.

So, as I salivated over her amazing goodies, I found one that looked easy enough for a fair-weather cook such as myself to whip up. And I already had most of the ingredients. Score!

What you’ll need:

3 tsp Olive Oil
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 Cup Chopped Fresh Basil
10-12 Oil Packed Sundried Tomatoes, chopped
1 Cup Couscous
1 Cup Boiling Water
1/4 Cup Pine Nuts, toasted
Aceto Balsamico di Modena

So here’s the link to the incredibly delicious couscous dish. I was very excited when I realized the Balsamic Vinegar I had recently purchased, though not exactly what she used, is di Modena, as she recommends. Boy is it tasty.

With all of her creations, she tells a little story about the dish, and shows the step-by-step process for creating it,  which I am so appreciative of. And again, the photos are beautiful! I would definitely make this dish again. Serves two.

my sister and her 6 month old son

My parents recently celebrated their 35th anniversary. In honor of the event my sister and I, my baby nephew, my boyfriend and even my boyfriend’s dad and sister spent this past Saturday over at my parent’s house. We had a great time hanging out outside, going on a boat ride, kayaking, and just hanging out and chatting. But one thing that set this family gathering apart from the others is that my parents made an entirely vegan dinner. My mom has always been very supportive of my choice to be vegan. She is always looking for vegan recipes and trying to adapt some of her non-vegan recipes. But this was the first time they had ever prepared an entirely vegan meal for a group of people. They had vegan appetizers including cowboy caviar (one of my favorites), and for dinner my dad grilled portabella mushrooms and veggie burgers which made one hell of a great sandwich.

Picture this: a vegan wheat bun, atop that add a large, freshly grilled portabella mushroom, a freshly grilled veggie burger, caramelized onions, then add a huge slice of a fresh local organic heirloom tomato (which I brought from the Whole Foods near me- seriously the most decadent tomatoes I ever had), maybe add a little Vegenaise or mustard, condiment of your choosing. Ohhhh man. Sooooo tasty.

In addition my mom made a vegan broccoli salad with Vegenaise, potatoes with olive oil, and a lovely fruit salad. I’ll have to the get recipes from her and post them. For dessert I made those amazing cookies and my mom made vegan chocolate covered almonds. All tasted wonderful.

My boyfriend’s dad teased me and said “I was told I could get a nice juicy burger! What is this all vegan crap?” and I said “Whatever. You liked it.” and he responded with “Actually yeah. I thought it tasted good. Really good. Amazingly good.” He proceeded to tell my parents that because of me, he eats more vegetables now than he ever has in his life. He’s gotten so into eating vegetables and being more health-conscious that when he goes out to lunch with his co-workers they call him “salad boy” because he always gets a nice big salad wherever they go. And no, he’s not vegan. He’s not even vegetarian, but he’s definitely taking steps in the right direction.

It’s moments like that when I feel like maybe vegans are making a mark. Our freakish ways are having an impact. Even while we were chatting my boyfriend, his sister, and my sister (who rarely eats meat or dairy but does eat eggs) all discussed various aspects of the food industry. It was a very positive conversation. Normally I would feel bullied in these conversations, but this was much more agreeable and I wasn’t the only one defending veganism. We all seemed to be in agreement about the positive impacts veganism has on the environment, people’s health, etc. Even when my sister asked what’s wrong with buying free range eggs, it was my boyfriend’s sister that said how you can’t trust store bought items that are considered “free range” because the regulations are so laxed, like keeping birds in tiny cages all day but letting them out for a few minutes can be considered “free range.”

My sister asked about free-range eggs because my parents live in farm country and they have neighbors that sell free range eggs that are actually the true definition of free range. They are very happy chickens that run around the yard all day. But how many people really live in areas where they can just grab a couple of free range eggs from their neighbors? Very few. And therefore you have to place your trust in the stores to let you know what is “free range” and what isn’t. Check out this link to see the dark side of free-range farming: http://www.peacefulprairie.org/freerange1.html. Not to mention we don’t need to be eating the eggs of other animals to be happy and healthy.

In all it was a pretty great weekend filled with vegan goodies, good weather and good conversation. How lovely.

It was recently brought to my attention that if you view my site via Internet Explorer, not only does the design look totally bonkers, but you can’t leave comments! I’m a dedicated Firefox user (I highly recommend it) and forgot to even check my site’s compatability with IE. If you use Safari or Firefox, you’re golden. If you’re using Internet Explorer please be patient with me as I sort out the kinks. Thanks so much and I am very sorry about this. And I’m very sorry to anyone that’s been trying to leave comments but could not.