MoFo Survey II

As I mentioned yesterday, the survey that Mo did was slightly different than the one I filled out yesterday. And since I like to talk about myself, I'll crap out on my last MoFo 2010 post and fill out the one Mo has on her blog. I've removed a few questions that are repeats from yesterday.

EPIC VEGAN MOFO 2010 SURVEY II

What is one food you thought you’d miss when you went vegan, but don’t?
I'm gonna be a stereotype and say cheese, since I thought I'd miss brie a lot. I do a bit, but I'mma try this macadamia brie and see if it hits the spot.

What is a food or dish you wouldn’t touch as a child, but enjoy now?
Vegetables of most stripes - like I said yesterday, I almost never ate veg as a child (except, bizarrely, spinach for a while).

What beverage do you consume the most of on any given day?
I'd have to say tea on most days, especially now that it's cold. We consume a lot of tea in my office. I've been bad and have started drinking tea with milk and sugar again. I need to not buy anymore soymilk for the office so I only drink my unsweetened tea.

What dish are you “famous” for making or bringing to gatherings?
It used to be chocolate chip scones (veganized Food Network recipe) or chocolate chip cookie bars (from, I think, How It All Vegan). Now it's just cup/cakes in general, I think.

Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)?
I'm a freak about my food. I usually eat a bit of everything in every bite, unless I really want to savour a specific dish. I also start chewing on the left and always finish on the right - it's all about the symmetry (and, even before I studied it, the archaic cosmology of the inherent badness of the left and goodness of the right, which is why the "better" bites go to the right side). I also typically don't like sweet things in savoury dishes (like fruit in curry) or whole / dried fruit in desserts. I'm sure there are more - I could probably write an essay about my food habits. Ooh, that's a topic ripe for ethnological investigation!

What’s one food or dish you tend to eat too much of when you have it in your home?
Oreos. We can have loads of other sweets in the house for ages, but we really have to struggle to make a packet of Oreos (or similar) last more than a day. I have to ration them or they'd be gone in within 30 minutes. I'm sure if we had ready access to them, we wouldn't think twice about inhaling the package.

What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available prepackaged?
Probably seitan. It's not as widely available here as it is in the US, but there's enough that I could just buy it most times that I need it. But it's so expensive, so why bother? On the flip side - something that's super easy to make at home but I always buy - hummus. We just don't like homemade hummus as much as store bought.

What ingredient or food is worth spending the extra money to get “the good stuff”?
Nooch - the stuff with B12 is 40-50p more expensive than the stuff without, but I'll pay it. Also, Plamil chocolate spread - it's £2.25 for, I think, 200g, whereas Whole Earth (I think that's the brand) is nearly a pound cheaper. But even though Plamil isn't consistent, it's still pretty much always better than any other brand.

Are you much of a snacker? What are your favorite snacks?
Not exactly. I have to really think about snacking, and I try to only eat when I'm hungry. I usually snack on noochy toast or bread with chocolate spread, or if I'm being really good, organic Pink Lady apples with smooth white almond butter. I'm usually not good.

What are your favorite vegan pizza toppings?
Chick'n or fauxsage and cheeze. More importantly, my favourite pizza dough is the Chicago-style deep dish in American Vegan Kitchen by Tamasin Noyes - if you liked Pizza Hut pan pizza pregan, this will be your pizza dough. It's the closest you'll ever get to that.

What is your favorite vegetable? Fruit?
Favourite veg is probably chard. Fruit - definitely organic Pink Lady apples.

What is the best salad dressing?
Goddess dressing - Annie's from a bottle, or Susan V's low-fat recipe if I have to make it myself.

What is your favorite thing to put on toasted bread?
Fluffy bread - margarine and nooch; dense bread - chocolate spread and raspberry jam.

What kind of soup do you most often turn to on a chilly day or when you aren’t feeling your best?
French lentil soup with tarragon and thyme from V'con - it's so easy for something so full of flavour

What is your favorite cupcake flavor? Frosting flavor?
I love me some cupcakes. I might have to go with the mint chocolate cupcakes from VCTOTW.

What is your favorite kind of cookie?
Snickerdoodle (no particular recipe) or the veganised version of Top Secret Recipes Keebler Soft Batch chocolate chip cookies

What is your most-loved “weeknight meal”?
Tofu scramble or pasta with tamari, oil, lemon, and nooch.

What is one dish or food you enjoy, but can’t get anyone else in your household to eat?
Shrooms. Mike's a hater. I had to eat an entire 250g package of them by myself tonight because I knew he wouldn't eat them, and if I tried to save them for another night, they would've sat in the fridge until I forgot about them and went off.

How long, in total, do you spend in the kitchen on an average day?
Minimum (including breakfast- and dinner-making time) is probably an hour, but up to 3 hours, maybe, depending on what I make. I think it averages out to about an hour and a half.

I was gonna do a post about tonight's dinner, but it's after midnight and I'm exhausted, so I'll try to not suck at blogging and actually continue to post now that MoFo is over (*sadface*).