Vegan Food Isn't Boring

It's not all salads people. I may have an omnivore day once and a while, but I've been eating meat less and less lately and finding new meat-free foods gets me all excited. Today I visited my local Organic Food Depot which is a great place to find, guess what, organic foods! They carry a lot of the same things as your Whole Foods would, but in a 500 sq. foot space. Today I was on a quest to find some vegan food items that I've had my eye on for a while. First, I picked up some Earth Balance buttery spread which, surprise, tastes just like butter though it is dairy free. I'm trying to find more dairy free products since cows milk is making my stomach increasingly unhappy so I also picked up some Daiya dairy free cheese in mozzarella flavor. This stuff claims to melt and stretch like real cheese and even looks like normal shredded mozzarella. They also have cheddar flavor which makes me want to try some vegan mac and cheese sometime soon. My favorite find was Field Roast slices. I purchased the lentil sage and wild mushroom flavor. They resemble slices from something like a pork tenderloin or deli meat, but they are completely vegan and can be eaten cold or heated up. I used these items to make myself the best sandwich I've made myself in a long time.

I spread some earth balance on my bread, fried up the field roast slices along with some cherry tomatoes, melted on some Daiya and plopped on some Nayonnaise eggless mayonnaise and it was awesome. The bun was perfectly buttery and the Field Roast slices were super savory and insanely good. I topped off my lunch with some spicy hummus from Trader Joes, some sliced carrot and my favorite Synergy Raw Kombucha: Divine Grape. In the past I've wondered how vegetarians can survive without something as filling and savory as a pile of deli-sliced lunch meat and a slab of cheese on bread. Now I know that vegan sandwiches aren't just vegetables on bread. This sandwich was, as the youths say "off the chain", and I'm not even a very good sandwich maker to begin with. I was very surprised at how good this sandwich was and I will definitely be making more of these. With the options available now, it's not too difficult to miss meat :)

FAT ATTACK!

The excess of birthday has caused me to have a major fat attack complete with naps, inability to get off the couch on the first try, and some sugar sensitivity on my molars, BOO! Oh well, We finally finished off the cake with much help from Brian and now I can sugar detox myself. This is my problem with birthday season, I get so used to stuffing my face that it really makes it tough to get back on track once it's over. The good thing is that my local farmers market is starting to see an influx of delicious foods. yesterday I picked up some portobello mushrooms, a GIANT bag of celery, tomatoes, yellow squash, lemons, oranges, and soooo much more!! There's a mini-store inside my farmers market called Green Alternatives which is just a plethora of eco-friendly home products and they had the COOLEST thing ever: reusable snack/sandwich bags!!

They are made by Snack Taxi which have a website where you can purchase these bad boys in every print you can imagine. Even skull prints for total badasses (are you a bad enough dude to carry your meat sandwich in a skull print snack taxi?!). I had to make a Bad Dudes reference because that game is hilarious. Anywho, these things are great because they're washable and keep you from having to buy snack bags, or in my case, put a handful of nuts into a litre freezer bag because you forgot to buy snack bags, fail!
On culinary creations, I made a delicious-as-hell batch of shrimp fried rice using roasted NOT fried shrimps. I added every vegetable I could find which included zucchini, broccoli, onion, carrot, and red pepper and mixed it in with short grain white rice (I know white=bad) but the only brown rice I had was basmati and that doesn't make for a good fried rice because it gets mushy. It was awesome, in fact it was soo good Brian ate the leftovers which is always a great feat for me.

Today, it's back to running after a three day hiatus. It's supposed to be nice today so why waste it inside?! My mood has improved so much since the weather has gotten better and with only one week of school left, summer couldn't come any faster. This summer will be filled with beach trips, an English vacation and my favorite frozen yogurt places is opening a store down the street from me. These factors translate into a great summer. Until next time, EAT!

O-L-D

I have decided to officially start my quarter-life crisis early at 24 instead of 25. Maybe the fact that I will be almost a quarter century old will kick my butt into regulating my workouts. But that's beside the point, it's my birthday tomorrow and, as I stated before, celebrated all weekend long to make up for a Monday birthday! Friday night I went out with some of my friends to our local Mexican Restaurant and got silly on a jumbo strawberry margarita. I had some delicious bean soft-tacos and rice and then forced myself to have some birthday cake ice cream at Norfolk Ice Cream Company because who can say no to ice cream?! Saturday was a party at my parents house. I got some really good presents including some really pretty jewelry from Satya Jewelry. It came in a pretty package and I received two necklaces and a pair of earrings from my parents.

We always have dinner and since the weather was so nice we ate outside. We have vegetables kebabs, baked potatoes and Alaskan king crab legs. I usually only get crab legs once a year and this year they were perfect because the meat came out in huge pieces and required minimal picking. My favorite part of a birthday party with my parents is the cake. My mom has had the same woman make my birthday cake since I was 9. She used to work with my mom and bake cakes on the side. Now she has "retired" from cake making, but says she will always make my cakes. I love her because she knows I'm a frosting person and I let her go nuts an put whatever on my cake. This year she outdid herself and made cupcakes with leftover batter and went flower insane. Needless to say, I was very happy with these decisions.

Today was much more subdued. Brian and I slept in and had a pretty lazy day. I started to mop and vacuum the kitchen floor, but our old vacuum just wasn't having it. My mom had bought that vacuum probably 15 years ago and gave it to me when I moved out and they got a sweet Dyson. Brian and I made a trip to Target ad bought a new vacuum cleaner and I'm so excited because it's bagless. Brian sure knows what to get me for my birthday! We also enjoyed a lovely vegetable baked ziti with homemade yeast rolls for dinner.

In fact, it was so goddamn good I had seconds and so did Brian. I had never made rolls before and it had also never dawned on me that I could make the dough in the friggin' bread machine! It sits idle on my counter when it could be making me rolls ALL DAY LONG. They came out really good even though I had to use almond milk instead of regular milk.

Dishes like baked ziti are great because they produce great leftovers. I'm not one of those people who needs a different dish every day. I'll probably be eating this for lunch and dinner for the next two days. I felt guilty about neglecting the blog so much this week, but too much was happening at one time. Thankfully, I've had a quiet evening to share my eats with you! Until next time, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Recap

I'm breaking the last weeks goings-ons into two posts because I've just got entirely too much crap to go over. Last week was the buildup to my birthday, which is tomorrow. Celebrating your birthday on a Monday is lame, especially when you have work and then class until 10 o'clock at night so I started the party on Thursday after I got off of work by taking a well-needed nap. Naps are great things when you're really tired, but sometimes I find myself napping when I should be working out, so I'll have to find a happy balance somewhere. Last week, I also experimented with making my own granola! There was a recipe in the April issue of Body+Soul magazine that I played around with to fit what I had at home. I used oats, sliced almonds, honey, flax meal, dried cranberries and dried blueberries. Unfortunately, when I was baking the oat and nut base I left it in for a bit too long so it was a bit overdone. It still tasted great though! I've been enjoying it on top of yogurt with a few chocolate chips mixed in.

I've also been making a lot of breakfast smoothies. I usually have these a lot in the warmer months and not so much in the winter because cold stuff just isn't as appetizing when it's 40 degrees outside. It's also a lot faster now that I have a high-speed blender.

I read on a website somewhere that tea that comes in teabags is the lowest quality tea. It's literally the scraps leftover form processing loose tea. I decided to try some loose teas since I have a strainer. I purchased three flavors from the Etsy seller Blue Raven Tea and They are all really good! I ordered Rio, St Tropez and Mango Yogurt; they're all fruity black teas and I'm really enjoying the whole loose tea process. You get 2 oz. in each package and the seller was nice enough to send me two HUGE samples of some other fruity teas. Samples pretty much make my day.

That pretty much sums it up for last week. School is coming to a close and I couldn't be happier. I ordered a bajillion tank tops and bikini separates from Victoria's Secret this afternoon in every color you can think of. I'm ready for the beach :)

A Grand Day Out.

Granted, I slept through half of the day, the rest of it was pretty good! I woke up around 10:30, but didn't leave the bed until 11. I had an awesome brunch even though it was pretty much the same breakfast I have every day. I had the usual Trader Joes Oats and Flax instant oatmeal along with 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 a tbsp of coconut oil and 1 tbsp of almond butter. What made all the difference was the addition of a passion fruit which made the checkout girl really pissy when she had to find the code to type in to ring it up, but it was worth it. I had also gotten three guavas which I left in my fruit bowl, but I went to have one this evening when I got home only to find out that they'd already gotten moldy. EW! What a damn disappointment and they were like $1.50 a piece.


This afternoon, I went to a local park with my friend Kelyn! It was fun catching up seeing as we haven't hung out since high school and it was nice being outside. It was sunny in the mid 70s and it should have been illegal to sit inside on a day like today. We sat and talked and planned some food-related activities so now I have things to look forward to! A new work week starts, but the end of the semester is getting closer and I'm ready for a nice break. That's all for now, bye everyone!

Ploughmans > Tempeh

Tempeh, I'm sorry, but I just don't like you. It's nothing personal and if I had to eat you I would, but since I have the choice I choose not too. I bought a block of tempeh a few years ago and didn't know how to prepare it so it went bad in the fridge. I decided to try it again on a whim when I saw it in the grocery store. I steamed it for about 10 minutes before adding it to a sort of stir fry I had made with some asparagus, kale and spring onions. I also threw a sauce on top made with soy sauce and maple syrup which sort of caramelized over the tempeh and the veggies. The texture of tempeh is just weird, soft soybeans with not much flavor. I'm not really a texture freak so I was surprised that I didn't enjoy it, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat the entire thing. The veggies and the sauce were *awesome* though and everything mixed with the quinoa was a really delicious and filling meal. Quinoa is becoming a new favorite. I have had it in the past and wasn't too blown away with it, but I've recently discovered that by rinsing the quinoa before cooking it removes the bitter seed casings that might still be attached tot he seeds. Even if it wasn't the biggest success it certainly looked nice.

I spent my Saturday like I normally do, at my parents house doing laundry (my building doesn't have laundry facilities) and when it's warm I love to hang out on their patio swinging on the porch swing. I usually end up getting sunburned while I do this so my legs are varying colors of pinks and reds. They look kind of like a paint color sample but on my FREAKING LEGS. Oh well, that's why God invented sunless tanner. For lunch my dad suggested a pseudo-ploughman's lunch which in British-people terms is a lunch of varied crap that would resemble something a farmer would bring for lunch while working out in the fields. Stuff like bits of leftover meat, some roasted or boiled (surprise!) vegetable, cheese and some bread. We had a buttload of fruit, some smoked salmon and a lot of other stuff. It was very satisfying.

My day ended with Brian and I going out to eat with our friends Emily and Pete to the new YNot Pizza that opened up about a block away from our apartment. I fattied it up by getting stuffed shells (oh hell yes) and pink grapefruit gelato which was effing amazing so all-in-all today was a good day!

Beauty Bites

Just a short post dedicated to my friend and coworker, Kimmy, who is suffering (along with her husband) from the result of a nice day outside with no sunscreen. Sunburn is NO FUN and being the almost-albino that I am, I get sunburned a lot. I used to use a lot of the store bought aloe gel, but I found that they either left me feeling sticky or really just made me peel even worse than if I didn't use it. I have found a few recipes online to relieve sunburn, but I have a few of my own that I use to soothe my skin after being fried. Recipe number one is a face/body mask that you can use pretty much anywhere on the body that contains cooling ingredients that feel really nice on crispy, dried-out skin.

1. Super-Soother
- 2 Tbsp greek or plain yogurt (flavored yogurts have sugar and can become sticky so stick to plain though greek is the best).
- 1/4 cup peeled, sliced cucumber, seeds removed.
- Aloe gel FROM an aloe plant (aloe plants can be purchased from places with garden centers like Lowes for $3-$10 and they are almost indestructible, just great to grow at home)*
- 2 tbsp plain rolled oats (flavored oatmeal has sugars which are sticky, use plain oats like the ones found in the big canisters at your grocery store)

Load up all of these ingredients in your trusty blender or food processor and blend until paste-like. Put this mixture on all of your sunburned areas and just relax. This mixture may drip so wear a shirt of a towel that you don't really mind getting drippy. I let this mixture sit for about 10-15 minutes and I usually rinse it off before it gets hard. All of the ingredients are very soothing to the skin and very moisturizing. Finish off with thick face cream to help with peeling and this mask will keep in the fridge for about a week and can be used daily to treat the burn.

Another mask that I like to use is great for inflammation which comes along with having a sunburn. The Asian spice, tumeric, which is mostly used in Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine is a natural anti-inflammatory and I use it to make a great healing mask for my many sunburns!

2. Tumeric De-Flamer
- 1 tbsp greek or plain yogurt
- 1/2 tsp tumeric powder (Bright yellow spice that can be found in the seasoning section of your grocery store)

Mix the two ingredients until your yogurt is bright yellow. Tumeric STAINS so wear something you don't mind staining and pull back your hair. Let this mixture sit for 10-15 minutes and then rinse with a washcloth that you don't mind staining. Warning: Your face may be yellow in some spots, but this will eventually fade so don't freak out!

Now that summer is getting closer I'll be using these remedies a lot more often. I hope that these help with your sun-related skin problems!!

*In order to extract the gel from the aloe plant, removed a leaf and slice sideways down the leaf. Upon opening, there will be a thick gel inside the leaf. This gel can be scooped out with a spoon to be used in the mask recipe).