We recently went to see Jurassic Park outdoors at the La Brea Tar Pits. I made dinosaur eggs, dinosaur sandwiches and dinosaur cookies!
DINOSAUR EGGS!!!
I made several different kinds of dino eggs, experimenting with the concept and having the *huge* range of vegan ingredients to work with, the possibilities are endless. If ever you crave something that came out of a chicken's butthole, don't worry, I've got ya covered (at least on the concept, improvement on the taste). These eggs are fun, exciting, flavorful and we get to pretend that they came out of a dinosaur's yin-yang instead.
I used 3 different things for the shells- Avocado, potato, and tofu. For the filling the bases were avocado and mashed potatoes. This is your outline, from here, experiment.
I used purple potatoes to give it a fun color. I mashed it with veganaise for one filling, and toffutti sour cream for one. I also put a little apple cider vinegar in the mix (you can use a squeeze of lemon if ya want). Little salt too. For the yellow fillings, I put a little tumeric in there to make it a pretty yellow.
Another filling was an avocado that I melon-balled and placed inside a mashed potato shell. I just took a ball of potato and molded it into the shape of an egg. Topped this one with a little oregano.
The tofu shell is the one many of you will probably be familiar with. I cut out a piece of tofu and soaked the shell in apple cider vinegar for a minute. Then just put whatever filling you'd like in there. You can also go the crumbled tofu filling route if you want, but mashed potato filling is my favorite.
All shells should be coated with a little apple cider vinegar and a little salt. Putting fresh herbs in the mashed filling is another good idea, I put tarragon in one of my avocado eggs and it was really good. I also put crushed pistachios on one of them. Go wild, use your imagination!
It's always fun for me to make my own labels for things. Especially my own wine bottle labels when there is a theme. Here's the wine we brought for the movie. Clever Girl Cabernet.
It makes it even more fun if you have a 9 year old boy to bring like I did. You get to watch him geek out on dinosaurs! Well, technically he's 28...
I made this shirt a few years back... for ME! Lucky for Joe we are the same size so he was able to geek out to the fullest extent.
Dinosaur Cookies!
This is the basic sugar cookie recipe that I've worked and re-worked throughout the years that I really like. No egg replacer! Not necessary. I got the dinosaur cookie cutters from Sur Le Table, they were only a dollar a piece and the only thing I could afford in that store.
2 3/4 cups white unbleached flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (aluminum free if you can)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pure cane sugar
1 cup vegan butter or margarine (softened)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
Beat the sugar, soy milk and butter together, then add the vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients, then mix everything together with your hands. For best results, let the dough chill in the fridge for about 30-60. Flour your working surface liberally, roll out the dough and cut out your cookies. bake at 350 for 10-15.
For the icing, mix 3-4 cups of powdered sugar with a little bit of water at a time until desired consistency (not too runny, not too dry). I used purple carrot extract for my food coloring. I highly recommend natural food coloring. You can get it at the health food store. It's expensive, but worth it.
Joe's favorite dinosaur- the Stegosaurus!
I made dino-sandwiches too! I made cucumber sandwiches, but any vegan sandwich will do. Use your dinosaur cookie cutters to cut out your dino-wich, and save the scraps for tomorrow's lunch when you won't be *as* disappointed that your sandwich isn't shaped like a dinosaur.
Veggie saurus represent! First dino on the screen! I'm sure it goes without saying that I think this dino-zoo is unethical, but if they were going to do it, why not just clone the vegan dinosaurs! They never would've had the problems they did, like getting eaten or merely escaping death. Let this be a lesson to the world.
Vegan-saurus leafletting to the meat-o-saurus
Brontosaurus: Here's some information on the realities of animals enslaved for food that the industry wants to keep hidden.
T-Rex: Oh wow, thank you so much for providing me with this information. I'm so glad there are dinosaurs like you who care enough to work so hard at informing the public of these atrocities so that we can be informed consumers, help these poor animals and end suffering at the hands of capitalist greed and cruel, outdated cultural traditions.
*What? It doesn't happen like this? Well, this is my playtime fantasy. I write the script!
