Easter Goodies and Early Birthday Gifts

I haven't been very good at updating this blog regularly... sorry (not sure who I'm apologizing to, but all the same).

Things have turned up since last I wrote! I now have a new job with a company called Premier which creates school planners and calendars. I start work on the 24th, just two days after my 23rd birthday, which is of course on April 22nd. I'm excited and nervous and still a little in shock about the whole thing. It's a seasonal position but even if they don't decide to keep me on after summer, it will look pretty good on my resume!

But first I should talk a little about Easter!

I was anxious about spending another Easter away from my family, especially since this year it would just be me and Danielle celebrating together. It's been several years now since I was last home for Easter with my family, and it's one of my favorite holidays. My family has a tradition of doing a sunrise hike and sermon on Easter morning. My parents also write us each cards telling us how they appreciate the ways in which we've changed and grown in the past year... and then we have our Christian Passover Seder meal, full of symbolism and storytelling and singing. I miss it. Last year I was able to listen and participate a little bit over the phone, and that was nice.

This year we got invited to go on a hike with some acquaintances from school on Saturday. It turned out to be a gorgeously sunny weekend, and I loved it!

We hiked a trail near Larrabee State Park which is called the "oyster dome" trail. It was mostly uphill and pretty steep, but lots of trees, ferns, and views of the sound (puget sound or the salish sea) and we even crossed some streams along the way. It was pretty muddy in some places.

AND THEN we were silly enough to climb up on top of this big rock and almost couldn't get down... but we found a way in the end.

And of course, finally, we made it to the top of Oyster Dome.

Hiking has always felt like a very symbolic experience to me. It's a struggle to get to a higher place, a higher vantage point and perspective. Sometimes it seems like the trail just keeps getting steeper and our legs keep getting heavier and how could it possibly be worth it? But if it's a good hike and you're doing it right, it's half its own reward because you know each step is an accomplishment and you're in the middle of a beautiful wilderness. If you were to stop along the way, you could see beauty where you are, but still, you keep going because there's something amazing to see, and a great thrill of accomplishment to feel, when you reach the top. It's a great way to think about life. It makes me feel optimistic, like each heavy step is meaningful. Even the mud just makes it more memorable. And sometimes we stop and take detours to challenge ourselves for fun and then get stuck and maybe a little bit scared, but it all works out and soon enough we're on our way and glad we gave it a try.

There was no sunrise when we got to the top since the sun was already up, and no sermon. But I felt a similar sense of happiness and awe at the world and my tiny-but-real significance within it.

The next day we were so sore, but we dragged ourselves out of bed early to go to church together at Christ the Servant. Yes, I go to church with Danielle sometimes, and I love it. The front of the chapel was covered in flowers, the choir was amazing, and there was a small band/orchestra type group with horns and a clarinet and flute which made everything sound twice as majestic. The Easter hymns nearly made me cry and for the first time in weeks I felt the joy of what it really means to be Christian. Jesus lives and rose from the dead--his love and hope conquered every darkness imaginable, and that means there's always hope for us, no matter how dead we feel. We can make it to the top. We can see the view. And we can have joy in the struggle. We can overcome anything because of that spark of light inside us, which sometimes, in special moments, feels more like a sun.

So my Easter was wonderful!

Granted, I've had to be careful since then, because I've been having way too many sweets!

First of all, me and Danielle made vegan peanut-butter filled chocolate eggs. They're basically exactly like Reese's cups, except better because we used Trader Joe's Pounds Plus dark chocolate for the outside which is way tastier than Reese's chocolate. We are definitely going to have to make and eat more of these soon!

Then last weekend Danielle's parents came up and we had a sort of combined birthday thing because our birthdays are only 12 days apart. So I got a new blender (EXCELLENT because my old one broke)! And a singing bowl (FANTASTIC because it reminds me of the East West Bookstore in Seattle, which is a spiritual sanctuary I've had the privilege of stepping into a few times)! Also they brought home-made Raspberry Truffle Brownies and homemade vegan blueberry cheesecake (unfortunately I don't know what recipe Danielle's dad used, but it was sure good, and so sweet of him to make it for us). Oh and Oma gave us chocolate hemp ice cream too.

Yes I am stealing the PPK's picture.

Since then we've both been kind of lazy because we started watching Doctor Who on Easter and I'm low on grocery money. But we still manage our usual pots of lentils and curries and the other night I made a lovely barley stew with lots of herbs and veggies in it. We've also made two batches of super easy homemade biscuits with Earth Balance and jam.


Enjoying the sun and rain which are beginning to happen in ALMOST equal measures. My plants are finally growing a little but they're still small. At least our houseplants are doing well.

reach toward the liiiight

Still anxious about the future. Life is a series of great contradictions and contrasts. I guess the best thing to do is to try to enjoy those contrasts and rejoice in the beauty of everyday life.

Food Picture Time!

I haven't been doing a lot of interesting cooking lately because I'm still waiting for my first paycheck and the grocery budget has temporarily shrunk (at least I hope it's temporary). Also I've been being a lazy bum doing a Star Trek marathon for the last few weeks.

But here are some of the few things we have made recently!

Eggplant and Black Eyed Pea Curry

From The PPK of course. It was a pretty simple recipe even if it did seem to take a long time (we were starting with dried beans). I liked it but Danielle didn't... something about the eggplant being bitter I guess. We left out the fennel seed. It made what felt like a ton of food for two people... We were eating it for the next 2 days.

Sunflower Mac

This was a pretty simple recipe too actually! I liked the way it tasted, even if it turned out a little gritty because our blender decided to DIE halfway through the process of making the sauce (RIP BLENDER. Thanks for dying when I have no money to replace you!) but I'll just say, despite what people may claim, it still doesn't taste like Mac n' Cheese. It's good, and I do like the flavor, but if you're going for authentic this isn't really it. I'd still recommend it to vegans though since a lot of people really love it.

Peanut Butter Blondies 

omg this recipe was so simple, and so rich it was ridiculous! Overwhelming peanut butter flavor. It was almost too much for me, and I'm a peanut butter addict o_o

Sweet Potato and White Bean Soup

I halfway made up this recipe myself by looking at recipes for soups involving white beans. This is a picture of my first try which didn't include kale... I like it better with kale in it though. I think this is basically how the recipe went, but you can always experiment with more herbs if it's too bland.

2 TBSP olive oil
4 cups veggie broth
1 onion, chopped
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2-1 bunch chopped kale (depends on the size of the bunch)
1 can white beans
1 cup crushed italian style canned tomatoes
1 sweet potato or yam, chopped into smallish chunks
1-2 tsp of dried thyme

Fry up the onion until translucent, add garlic for a minute or two, then put in the broth, kale, tomatoes, and yam, along with thyme. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until yam is tender  (may take longer) Add white beans and warm through... add more salt, thyme, or fresh rosemary to taste (dried takes too long to soften).

Sushi

One day when we needed creative ways to use veggies, I made the zesty black bean and corn salad, and then whipped up these! It took ages but I had a lot of fun. They're very simple ingredients-wise... but time-consuming. I used the sushi rice recipe out of an excellent book called Kansha, and the recipe for the sushi itself came from a little book full of cute vegan sushi called Vegetarian Sushi Made Easy.

Nava's Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd's Pie


From the Fat Free Vegan blog. This recipe went way beyond my expectations. We used kale instead of spinach. Delicious comfort food, right here. I can't wait to make it again!


Raspberry Truffle Brownies

These are probably the best vegan brownies I've ever had. My first bite was so overwhelming it was hard to go on, but then I had to, and then I couldn't stop. Ugh... really rich and fudgy, I love it. Recipe includes applesauce.

And last but not least... I'm sad to say that I ate the last of our
Bob's Red Mill 10-Grain Cereal

Which is delicious with almond milk, brown sugar, nuts, sunflower seeds, and dried fruit on it.
Did you know that if you eat 2.5 cups of this stuff, that's 60 grams of protein? That's less than 10 grams shy of my daily recommended intake, and probably goes even further over the edge with the 6 or so grams from the sunflower seeds, and another 6 or so from a slice of peanut butter toast. Plus it's warm and comforting and super filling. I need to get me some more of this stuff.

So there you have it... a sampling of the best stuff I've been eating lately (we don't need to go over the endless amounts of cold cereal, oranges, pasta with marinara, toast, applesauce, and triscuits spread with various nut butters and jams, do we?)

Chocolate? VEGAN CHOCOLATE.

Ah, I haven't written in a while. I've been busy jobsearching. I have gotten an interview for a position in the print center at Office Max, which would be nice because it would utilize my experience with Photoshop and other such things.
Actually I will have to admit that I have also been very distracted by two things. One is that I started watching BBC's Sherlock last week and didn't stop until I was done with the Reichenbach Fall (Season 2 Finale). The second is that I got sucked into Tumblr. I have a site there now, where I post a lot of pictures of animals and vegan stuff amongst other random things. It is a major time-vacuum and I really need to get some self-discipline back soon x_x

ANYWAY. Speaking of self-discipline. This post is about chocolate.

This, my friends, is a Justin's dark chocolate peanut butter cup, and it is just as good if not better than a Reese's. And it's Vegan. Danielle got it for me for Christmas, along with a few other vegan chocolate delicacies.

Justin's has some amazing vegan nut butter products. We were first introduced to them when we found a jar of Chocolate Hazelnut Butter at Deals Only. It was so good, not too sweet, but rich and chocolatey and hazelnutty. A bit harder to spread than Nutella but I think, for someone who truly loves hazelnut and chocolate, it's probably better than Nutella. And Nutella isn't vegan, so...

They also have some other nut butters, peanut and almond. Not all of those flavors are Vegan so you have to check the ingredients. They're a bit much if you buy it full price in the store, so I'm glad I have a discount grocery place that gets it from time to time, but it's a real quality product. If you can't find it in a store near you, Justin's has an Amazon Store where you can buy the nut butters in packs of three.

On a fairly related note, we recently tried out some chocolate chip cookie mix that had been sitting in our cupboard for ages. It was another Deals Only find, this time from Cherrybrook Kitchen. Apparently, Cherrybrook Kitchen specializes in hypo-allergenic dessert mixes, so they have gluten-free stuff, vegan stuff, peanut-free stuff, etc. This one wasn't gluten-free, but it WAS Vegan!

Danielle couldn't seem to stop eating these; apparently they're the best chocolate chip cookies she's ever had. Something about them just really hit the spot with her, and I liked them a lot too. They were actually better than the ones we made from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar... o_o I know, blasphemy, but it's true. We'll be on the lookout for more of this stuff.

Questions about where to find Vegan Chocolate Chips? I have seen some at SOME regular grocery stores, and I've heard that Safeway sells them. If you can't find them at a mainstream grocery store, I would suggest looking at your local health food store, or natural grocer, OR looking to buy it on the internet. There are a few different brands...

Speaking of chocolate is reminding me 1) that I need to do a post about these delicious fudgy no-bake cookies that we made, and 2) that for the past week or so I've been really wanting some Tempt Chocolate Fudge hemp-milk ice cream. That stuff is so good, it's like a fudgesicle. Especially good with peanut butter. I also like mixing it with warm berries or berry jam...

Dinner With Friends!

So I'm two days away from heading back up to Washington... actually less since I'm flying out Tuesday morning.

Yesterday we had some good friends over for dinner and I made the ENTIRE THING!! I was so proud of myself. Even though it basically meant spending all day in the kitchen and my feet hurt by the end of it, everyone enjoyed everything and so it felt really good. It's nice to just hang out with friends and family, and even better when everything is vegan.

Making such a big meal is a real milestone for me. It really boosted my cooking confidence.

The aftermath

Rustic Winter Stew (the pic on PPK is better >_>)

The Menu:
-Rustic Winter Stew with Mashed Potatoes or Rice (I didn't feel like making Polenta)
-Cornbread
-Zesty Bean and Corn Salad (a double batch)
Drinks: Water and non-alcoholic Sparkling Burghundy
Dessert: Chocolate Pudding Pie with whipped MimicCreme on top

So basically, I am really grateful for the internet because without it I could not cook awesome meals like this.

Cornbread (of course)

Bean and Corn salad

It's beautiful....!!

 Rich (our main guest)'s wife also brought an amazing cucumber salad that tasted kind of Vietnamese. It was awesome.

This dinner served about 12 people if you count the two little kids. I was glad that we fed everyone well and still had some rice and mashed potatoes left over (and cornbread and bean salad too!). Actually there was some pie left over too.

My little sister talking to Rich

One of the best moments of the night was when Rich was teasingly trying to guilt me for creating such tasty food that it caused him to overeat. My response? "I regret nothing!!"
He burst out laughing.


On the one hand I'm glad I'm going back to only having to cook for two people since cooking for so many has been a little difficult and sometimes exhausting. But on the other hand it's really nice to be able to share delicious vegan food with other people and get compliments on it... it also is a nice way of surprising people, showing them that you don't have to really give up tasty food when you're vegan. You just have to make it a little differently and sometimes it tastes even better. My sister just told me "vegan food is the only way I like eating vegetables!" Hahaha.

I guess I'll have to start going to potlucks and stuff xP

In general I'm fairly satisfied with how things have gone food-wise on this trip. I feel humbled that my family has bought me what I wanted to cook with while I've been here, and my parents have both been very supportive... the kids for the most part have tried everything I've made even if they thought they wouldn't like it. It's been good.

I will miss them...

Looking to the future: the next vegan potluck in Bellingham is scheduled for February 18th! I will have to start thinking of what to bring... xD

Christmas Summary and Happy New Year!

Hi all, it's been a while since I've posted. Holidays make it hard to keep up with this kind of thing.

Well, I've had several food adventures, one being that I tried making Creamy Red Pepper Lentil Lasagna. It turned out fine, except that the only nondairy milk we had in the house was vanilla soy milk, and I made the ghastly mistake of using that to make the cheesy sauce for the top. The sauce tasted like vanilla frosting or something... it was really ... odd. But everybody seemed to like it anyway, so no worries I guess. Just don't try that at home; your family might not be as chill with it as mine.

So on Christmas Eve I stayed up baking so I'd have some nummies for the next day that I could eat. I tried Marbled Banana Bread which has mild chocolateyness in it, and also made an Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie, but the only problem was I scalded the chocolate pudding stuff and so I thought it turned out kind of gross. However, my sister, who is not LDS, says that it just tasted like a mocha pie and she liked it a lot. So apparently mocha = scalded chocolate?? I found that a little amusing. But my mom also liked it once she had put crumbled mint Oreos on top (Oreos are generally vegan btw). The banana bread turned out awesome.

Also the graham cracker crust I made was pretty crumbly...

My family always has a big Christmas Breakfast. At my house, normal breakfast is fruit and toast, and always has been, maybe with a little bit of cereal. But on Christmas day we have waffles or pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon and/or ham, etc. The works. It's also a tradition that we drink eggnog with ginger ale in it. So Dad was wondering what I could eat and drink for Christmas breakfast. Bisquick actually seems to be vegan if you just mix it with water and no eggs or milk, so the waffles were no problem. Hash browns were no problem once fried in olive oil or Earth Balance. I also got some Tofurkey Italian Sausage and cut them up and fried them too. I didn't have any vegan eggnog (the stuff I've tried isn't very good... anybody have recommendations?) but I had some cranberry and black cherry juice with ginger ale instead. All in all I was stuffed by the end of it, especially since I had some banana bread too.

I like my hash browns crispy.

Then recently, my mom and I made some impromptu pizza, using bisquick to make the crust. We baked the crust before putting the stuff on it. So we had three rectangular pizzas, and she made the smallest one with real cheese on it for the picky young'uns, and I made the middle one an alfredo-y pizza and the largest one had tomato sauce with globs of leftover alfredo-y sauce. Both the middle and largest also had crumbled tofu, and all the pizzas had sauteed red onion, yellow squash, and red bell peppers on them. I used one red onion, one small yellow squash, and four red bell peppers. Oh and a can of olives.

For the tomato sauce we just used some canned Hunts sauce, one of the ones without meat or cheese in it. I think it was garlic and herb? And for the alfredo, we bought a carton of MimicCreme which is vegan and made from cashews and almonds etc. I put 3 tablespoons of earth balance in a deep pan and melted it on medium-low heat, then put in two tablespoons of flour and whisked until it made a paste, then poured in a cup of MimicCreme and put in a ton of chopped garlic, probably around 6 big cloves... then whisked it until it was thick (the creme was already pretty thick!) and then added another cup and stirred again on low heat. Just kinda let it sit there on low heat for a little while, stirring occasionally, and added garlic salt until it tasted right. Also a little bit of No Chicken Better than Bouillon, which gave it more flavor.

Pretty awesome. We baked them each at about 400 or 450 F, just until they looked and felt done... kind of a vague recipe, I'm sorry. But maybe I can perfect it later.

In general, it's been a pretty good Christmas, food-wise. The kids still don't like the stuff I make half the time, and there were still a lot of uncomfortable moments of going caroling to someone's house and getting smacked in the face with the bleghy smell of a roasting turkey, and watching my family eat meat, especially my dad's family up in northern Utah at their annual get-together, and listening to my uncles joke about hunting. There will always be hard moments like that. But it has meant a lot to me that my parents are supportive of my choices and willing to try the food I make or even help me make it.

And it has been a good Christmas in other ways too. I have been completely spoiled this year. I asked people not to get me presents, because I was too poor to get presents other than cards for anyone but my mom and one of my brothers (and I wasn't even spending my own money) but by various twists of fate I have ended up with almost an entire wardrobe of clothes both new and used, an e-reader, a fantasy book, a used graphics tablet, a cute winnie-the-pooh mug, and a beautiful necklace. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things....

We always watch a movie on Christmas Eve and this year it was Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Aslan is an important symbol for me, and I went to bed hoping I could learn to see God more like how I see and adore Aslan. Lo and behold, the necklace I got the next day.

In general Christmas was very spiritually filling and emotionally draining. This whole trip has required me to reevaluate a lot of things.There have been miniature crises and long talks and crying spells. It's always hard going out of your comfort zone, but I'm grateful for the chance I've had to spend time with my family and my friends, especially to get to know one of my sisters better and her two precious kids.

Life is so precious....

And this world is so beautiful....

From the drive up north (I drove part of the way!)

And all the beautiful music from/with my family and the choirs they've been in, it really helped me to think again about what Christ's life really meant and what kind of person he really was and is. Something I'd like to share is parts of the 2nd and 3rd verses of O Holy Night, because most people don't sing those, but they are really beautiful especially when sung by a choir.

 The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

So... I would always get emotional listening to these lyrics, especially "He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger" and "in his name all oppression shall cease". I would really like for that to be true. As much as we sing peace on earth and good will to men, it is easy to see that the world is not at peace. But God still loves us anyway and would like for us to get there someday. I guess all we can do is trust that Jesus will be there with us to lead us toward that better world, that little child who was born among the animals of the field and grew up to heal all people and give up his life out of love. And we can try to be that kind of person to those around us who are not at peace, and who are suffering either emotionally or physically.
This post has been pretty long and rambly and I probably should have divided it into two, but whatever. To round it all off, here's a tentative list of new year's resolutions.

-Draw more (one finished picture a month)
-Pray more, and with greater sincerity
-GET A JOB.
-Do some kind of garden again
-Publish at least one article (I already submitted one to Sunstone Magazine just yesterday!)
-Stay in touch with my family and friends
-Write to Alma (my brother on a mission in Korea) weekly
-Do better at my blog

I hope 2012 is an awesome year for everyone! And don't believe those silly people who totally misinterpreted the Mayan calendar. If you ask the Mayans they'll tell you it's a load of bullhonky (not sure if that's a real word).

Post-Thanksgiving and Finals Week

Hey! It's Final's Week and as I've been trying to beat back the stress, it has been hard to find time to write about how well Thanksgiving went.

Here's a picture, since I know everybody likes pictures.

Lookit the pretty table and nice food! Fruit salad, pea salad, squash, mashed potatoes and thick mushroomy gravy,  stuffing, cranberry sauce... I feel like I'm forgetting something... and it's not the turkey because we didn't have any! YEAH! Oh yeah there was a green bean casserole for the nonvegans, but it was vegetarian... it just had cream in it.

Here's a picture of the pretty candles and the mountain of stuffing that took us 3 days to eat the leftovers of. Mmm they were so good...

And here are the two desserts me and Danielle made via recipes from the Post Punk Kitchen: Pumpkin Cheesecake and Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf.

We were really scared the cheesecake wasn't going to turn out because we used soft tofu rather than extra-firm and halfway through we realized OMG there is no vanilla extract in this house!! So we rummaged and rummaged in the cupboards and found a bottle of vanilla beans which apparently you can make your own vanilla extract out of, except it takes like 7 months or something. So we just chopped up bits of the bean and blended it up. Ehehehe. But it turned out! Everybody liked it.

I felt especially grateful this Thanksgiving to be having it with my second family. Even more so because I found out over that weekend that I no longer have to worry about getting back up to Bellingham after Christmas break. I will be flying back in January and then the job search commences. I am truly blessed to know such generous people. I hope someday I can pay it forward.


Actually, life is going well in general, especially food-wise! I find that eating well has made a big difference in how I feel... even though it kind stresses me out to take extra time to make food, I have stopped stressing as much since I've realized I get stressed even more easily if I don't eat well. That was brought home to me last Thursday when I woke up after a day of nothing but applesauce, cereal, and Newman-Os, and my school stress suddenly seemed absolutely unmanageable. Once I had a good meal everything looked about ten times easier to handle. Ah, the simple lessons of life.

 I've been trying a lot of recipes with curry paste lately, and predictably, the best one I've tried so far has been from the Post Punk Kitchen: Red Curry Soup with Rice & Purple Kale. It was delicious... the lime juice is an absolute must though, it really changed the flavor and made it awesome.

Another quick shout-out to Brother and Sister Mumford for taking such good care of me at the last Friday Forum I went to. We sang Christmas Carols and everyone else was having taco soup, but they made a pot of black and pinto beans with tomatoes and green peppers, and I made my own taco salad with it plus a veggie burger. Was stuffed by the end!

Today we made some Ayurvedic dish with mung beans and cauliflower which was pretty good once we added some stock. I don't know what I'd do without Better Than Bouillon. It's become a kitchen staple for sure.

Later this week we plan to make onion rings, possibly some nacho sauce, and have a reprise of the creamy red chard linguine, except with kale. Just the thought of all that yummy food makes Finals Week look a little less daunting.

Six days until I fly home for Christmas! I hope to do a lot of cooking while I'm home... I feel a lot better this time around, like I actually know some things.

Cobbler and Cookies

Okay so I figure it's time for another food update.

One of my semi-recent adventures was making a blackberry-peach cobbler using this recipe.
However, rather than 3 cups frozen berries, I used 1 and a half cups fresh-picked blackberries (from bushes around town) and one fresh peach cut up. I think I also cut down on the sugar, maybe even halved it... that's a lot of sugar and it really didn't need it that much with the sweetness of the berries and the peach.

I ended up making extra cobbler dough at the end because the fruit mixture looked too liquidy and I felt like there wouldn't be enough cakey stuff to hold it all together. So I may have almost doubled the original first part of the recipe by the end... 

Here's a really bad picture of the finished product. It was yummy and took me forever to eat in between bouts of fighting off the colds in the air right now.

I also made cookies for the Harry Potter Club bake sale but I ended up forgetting to bring them, so there's still some in my fridge that need to be eaten... Here's the recipe for those. I used pecans instead of walnuts because they're way better than walnuts and less people are allergic to pecans. I also threw out the raisins in favor of dried cranberries.

Mine aren't as pretty as the ones on DVA because I didn't have any plastic bags to use as squirty-things to do the decorating. What I had to do was, after melting the vegan chocolate chips, I stirred my spoon around until a thin tendril of chocolate was hanging off it, then carefully laid that tendril down on the cookie, stirred until I got another little tendril, and so on. Thanks to Danielle for this idea, she was the one who figured it out. 

Here's the chocolate chips I used. I don't know how much they cost normally, since I got them at Deals Only which often cuts prices of specialty items in half or even in thirds. 

One warning about these cookies. They're kind of greasy... when we put them in a paper bag the oil soaked into the sides. No, vegan does not automatically mean low-fat. Just low-saturated-fat (unless there's coconut milk involved). Sure were yummy though.