• October 20th, 2008quarrygirlhealth, nutty steph's, products, recipes, veganomicon

    as a vegan, i am always looking for the perfect snack. it’s easy to find ubiquitous junk food items that don’t contain animal products (i’m talking to you, oreos!), but are full of scary ingredients that are hazardous to my health. for so long, i have been looking for an indulgence item that makes me feel like i am living it up, but not eating something that is gonna kill me. enter nutty steph’s. nutty steph’s is a vermont-based company making healthy, organic granola that tastes so decadent, it can compete with any household junk food.

    nutty steph's vermont granola, nutty steph's trail mix, and cookies made with nutty steph's ingredients

    nutty steph's vermont granola, nutty steph's trail mix, and cookies made with nutty steph's ingredients

    steph started selling her granola in 2003, when she was only 23 years old, and had no knowledge of commercial food production. what she lacked in age, however, she made up for in creativity and over the past five years her granola has gained tons of respect from buyers and chefs alike. and even more importantly, i love it! her granola is so packed with flavor, i almost don’t want to sprinkle it on top of anything. i’ve never tasted a “healthy” snack that is so perfect straight out of the bag. sweet, slightly salty, and above all, nutty, this granola is beyond delish.

    nutty steph's vermont granola: organic oats, pure vermont maple syrup, sunflower oil, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, vanilla extract and sea salt.

    nutty steph's vermont granola: organic oats, pure vermont maple syrup, sunflower oil, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, vanilla extract and sea salt.

    and, nutty steph’s granola can be used in various recipes. steph even has a whole category dedicated on on her website to the various uses for the granola. since i am a vegan, i decided to put the granola to the ultimate test and use it a recipe from veganomicon, the ultimate vegan cookbook. i made a recipe i already knew to be delicious, the chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies, and substituted nutty steph’s granola for the actual nuts. i also used nutty steph’s magic chunks for 1/3 of the chocolate chips called for in the recipe. i can tell you, these cookies have never tasted so delicious. the delicate blend of sweet sugary oats and pure nut flavoring added more to the cookies than i could have imagined. these were so much better than the cookies with walnuts.

    veganomicon's chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies using nutty steph's vermont granola and magic chunks

    veganomicon's chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies using nutty steph's vermont granola and magic chunks

    the crunchy granola and magic chunks were the perfect compliment to the soft dough and chocolate chips. unlike when baking the cookie with actual walnuts, the oats mixed in throughout the dough making for a much more substantial and satisfying cookie. plus, there were plenty of nuts in the granola, so i still got the intended nutty taste. the granola was absolutely great to bake with, and i am sure it would make a fine substitute in many of my favorite dessert and snack recipes.

    lastly, nutty steph also offers her own brand of trail mix which is out of this world. the minute you try this, it will be hard not to eat the whole bag in one sitting, because it is so damn addictive. the already irresistible granola gets thrown in with fresh batch of raisins, huge and whole crunchy nuts, and large chunks of dark chocolate to make something i can’t resist.

    nutty steph's granola trail mix: vermont granola, peanuts, raisins and chocolate chips

    nutty steph's granola trail mix: vermont granola, peanuts, raisins and chocolate chips

    this is by far my favorite product of nutty steph’s. i’m sure it would be great sprinkled onto some soy ice cream, or mixed in with some cereal, but i just enjoyed the entire bag plain, on its own. the chocolate discs really bring out the nutty-ness in crispy granola, and the raisins provide a softness to all the crunch. steph really has found the perfect way to combine natural ingredients and make them taste ridiculously good.

    this trail mix is so freakin' delicious

    this trail mix is so freakin' delicious

    nutty steph’s is a vegan junk food/health food dream come true. an unashamedly delicious snack containing ingredients that i can pronounce. all real food, no chemicals or fake shit is contained in nutty steph’s. let’s support this cool chick from vermont who makes the perfect vegan snack, and stick it to the big corporations!

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  • September 15th, 2008quarrygirlrecipes, salads, veganomicon

    colman’s english mustard is my absolute favorite condiment ever. it knocks me to the ground and leaves me crying when i eat too much of it, but at the same time, i can never really get enough. i’ve been known to sit in pubs and unload an entire bottle onto an order of chips, until i am streaming tears and red in the face. what can i say…i am addicted to the heat. so naturally when i came across a tasty-sounding recipe for a portobello salad with spicy mustard dressing in veganomicon, i had to give it a whirl with colman’s. the result was deadly & delicious.

    veganomicon's portobello salad with spicy mustard dressing, using colman's english mustard.

    veganomicon's portobello salad with spicy mustard dressing, using colman's english mustard.

    the only adjustments that i made to the salad recipe were: 1.) of course, subbing hot english mustard for the prepared spicy mustard, and 2.) using normal wine instead of cooking wine (cooking wine tastes like crap, and if it ain’t good enough for me, it ain’t good enough for my salad!). other than that, i went by the book, and the dish came out great. if you aren’t into really hot food though, and you still want that kick that colman provides, you may want to use half english mustard and half spicy mustard. seriously, i had to stop every once in a while and get water while eating because it was so fucking brutal.

    the best things about this salad though, were the juicy and succulent portobellos. after marinating and baking, they tasted soooo flavorful, kind of like the mushrooms from m café that come in the bi-bim bop. i will definitely be cooking these again and throwing them on a sandwich or burger.

    there ya have it, just another great tried and tested recipe from veganomicon. i would give it to you, but that would be cheating. definitely worth buying the book. everything i’ve tried has been awesome, except for the seitan, which come out quite right. i guess i will give it another shot. if any of you have some veganomicon seitan success stories, please let me know.

    until then, spice it up with this salad! it will hurt so good.

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  • June 29th, 2008quarrygirlrecipes, veganomicon

    i know everyone and their mom has been talking about how great veganomicon’s chickpea cutlets are, so i had to try them out. guess what? everyone was right. they were so easy to make and they tasted delicious.

    at quarrygirl, we like to do things a little differently—so we decided to make a chickpea cutlet sandwich, but with the protein sandwiching the carbs.


    quarrygirl sandwich with mashed potatoes and veganomicon’s chickpea cutlets

    i baked my cutlets in the oven (frying seemed just too decadent) and they turned out just right: crispy but not overly dry. i imagine they would be much better fried, and contain millions more calories. i think i will give a try next time anyways.

    yo vegans: first off, if you haven’t already, go grab a copy of veganomicon asap. i’m not easily pleased, nor am i a very good cook….and everything i’ve made from that cookbook tastes swell. secondly, once you have it, rush home and whip up some chickpea cutlets. the blog hype was right: they totally kick ass.

    no sandwich required. i wonder what i will make with this recipe next time. i’m thinking a chickpea cutlet burrito….? the possibilities are endless.

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  • as the summer rapidly approaches, it’s handy to have an arsenal of cool, refreshing meals that can be whipped up in less than 15 minutes. enter veganomicon and pete’s tofu to go.


    veganomicon’s corn & edamame sesame salad, atop spinach leaves with asian dressing


    pete’s tofu 2 go ready made tofu, with mango wasabi sauce (and we added in some chili garlic sauce as well)

    so simple to make and ready in minutes, this was the perfect meal for a scorching hot evening spent sitting on the couch with a bottle of wine. there was just enough to satisfy without leaving us full, bloated and feeling guilty.

    more pix after the jump…

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  • so i finally got around to making a meal from the much raved about cookbook, veganomicon. i picked what appeared to be the easiest recipe in the book (i cannot cook), did some ingredient hunting at the local health food store, and i was in business. special thanks to your vegan mom for pointing me in the direction of nature mart for their bulk bins of vital wheat gluten.


    veganomicon’s black bean burger with sautéed mushrooms, sprouts, tomato, onion, avocado, vegenaise and colman’s english mustard.

    in the end, these burgers turned out great…although i was a little worried during the process. after i had done all my fancy ingredient shopping at nature mart and whole foods, while in ralphs i realized i’d forgotten to buy bread crumbs. argh!!—all the varieties they offered contained whey, nonfat dry milk, or (shudder) egg whites. i decided it wasn’t worth the trip in la traffic to the nearest health food store just for one ingredient, so i used crumbled up hamburger buns instead. i think this resulted in my patties falling apart a little bit, but i just kept cooking them (longer than the recipe suggested) and they turned out just dandy.

    more pix after the jump.

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