Vegan Pizza Day And A Happy 4th Of July

Saturday was Vegan Pizza Day.  I made a delicious pizza using Big Stick Pepperoni from Vegan On The Cheap by Robin Robertson.  I love her cookbooks, the recipes are almost always reliable and good.  As a matter of fact, 1,000 Vegan Recipes is the cookbook I turn to most often when I have random ingredients I want to use, or when I want to make something basic but don't feel like looking through cookbooks.  I can almost always find a version of what I'm looking for, and the index is very user friendly.

Now onto the pizza:

This pizza was pretty much a clean out the fridge pizza.  It had the Big Stick Pepperoni, Smoky Curls, red pepper, zucchini, a few green onions, leftover pesto, Daiya mozzarella shreds, and leftover marinara on it.  I cheated and used a store bought vegan crust.  I really need to make my own crust more often.  I know it's not that hard, but for some reason I hardly ever do it.

I just found out yesterday that we have a local pizza place, One World Pizza, that stocks Daiya and makes vegan  pizza crust.  I am super excited to have this as an option now so close to home.  :)


For the 4th of July, we had a cookout, complete with veggie burgers, vegan side dishes and desserts.  I spaced out and didn't get many pictures of the food, and the pictures I got weren't great, but it was quite a feast.

My first plate had a veggie burger, baked beans, macaroni salad, grilled zucchini, asparagus with garlic, and potato chips.  There was also potato salad and broccoli salad (not shown).

Here's at least a better picture of the macaroni salad.  I made it with elbow macaroni, red pepper, green onion, diced zucchini (I have a bunch of zucchini that's been gifted to me right now), corn, diced up Daiya Jack style cheese, Tofutti sour cream, and Chipotle Vegenaise.  I used almost equal parts Tofutti and Vegenaise, with slightly more Vegenaise.  It was zippy and delicious.  The Tofutti tamed down the heat a little, but not to much.  I think this could be good with a lot of different ingredients thrown in.

For dessert, I made Isa's Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie, which I didn't get a picture of, although even if I had, her picture does it much better justice.  :)  It was very good served with vegan whipped topping.  I also made Rice Crispy Treats using Earth Balance and Dandies, and these cute little red, white, and blue kebabs with strawberries, Dandies, and blueberries.

My middle daughter loves anything lemon, so I made Lemon Fruit Dip, subbing almond milk and Tofutti sour cream, to go with the fruit kebabs.  Very yummy and fun.  I was surprised when I found out lemon Jello pudding mix is vegan.  I think several of their flavors are actually.  Of course, I still won't use it often, but once in awhile for something like this, it's nice to know.

I hope everyone was able to celebrate at least one of these events if not both.  :)