newest jam. can we talk about how she's 16 years old? 13 years younger than I currently am? I can't.
Friday, September 06, 2013
You can call me Queen B
newest jam. can we talk about how she's 16 years old? 13 years younger than I currently am? I can't.
Friday, March 08, 2013
Sneaky vegan.
I just sat here eating my vegan sandwich and staring at that Chris Farley GIF for legit like 5 minutes before I opened a new post.
Clearly, I've been lazy about blogging this week, and I doubt you want to read a post encapsulating all of the meals I've eaten since Monday, so I'll try to hit the high notes.
I'm much better at vegan cooking now. I'd actually say this has made me better at cooking in general. I've tried new flavors and techniques that I otherwise probably wouldn't have.
I am still having Diet Coke cravings here and there, but I try to remind myself that it never really makes me feel better after I've had it, so I try to stay away.
I am having cheese cravings seriously pretty much every minute that I'm awake, and probably most minutes that I'm asleep too. Cheese is amazing. Vegan cheese is the worst. I am seriously considering throwing this vegan thing overboard and having pizza for dinner tonight.
This whole thing has really made me think about the role that food plays in my life. I am the first person to proclaim the wonders of sharing a good meal with friends, but then I remember the times that I've used food to comfort or reward myself, and it makes me kind of sad. Haven't I evolved beyond that point? Or matured beyond that point? What is it about our society that says: "You're good. To show you how good you are, you get to eat this cookie." Think about those messages. Why can't we communicate how much we value one another in other ways? I value you and your health, here's a beet. High five. Or, how about, I value you, let's spend some quality time together. I dunno. I know that someday I'll have kids and I'll shove a fistful of oreos into their mouths just to have silence for the amount of time it takes for them to chew and swallow, but I hope that I also communicate my approval and appreciation in other ways too.
Oh, and the title of this post - this week someone asked how the veganism was going and I said that I was being a "sneaky vegan." What I mean by that is that I've been eating a lot of processed soy and a lot of things that I shouldn't be eating only because they're vegan - for instance, a vegan cookie is still a cookie. Eating 5 vegan cookies may be better than eating 5 regular cookies, but it's still eating 5 cookies. I committed to this diet with the intention of focusing on whole foods and plants and I haven't really been doing so great at that. There are a million documentaries about how veganism is great for you, but I'd be interested to hear how veganism affects your body if you're NOT following a whole foods/plant based diet. What if all you eat is tofu and veganaise and fakon (fake bacon)? Does anyone know where I can find information on that?
I'm back to juicing. I really do feel good after drinking juice in the morning.
That's all I've got for you today. OK BYE! Have a good weekend.
Clearly, I've been lazy about blogging this week, and I doubt you want to read a post encapsulating all of the meals I've eaten since Monday, so I'll try to hit the high notes.
I'm much better at vegan cooking now. I'd actually say this has made me better at cooking in general. I've tried new flavors and techniques that I otherwise probably wouldn't have.
I am still having Diet Coke cravings here and there, but I try to remind myself that it never really makes me feel better after I've had it, so I try to stay away.
I am having cheese cravings seriously pretty much every minute that I'm awake, and probably most minutes that I'm asleep too. Cheese is amazing. Vegan cheese is the worst. I am seriously considering throwing this vegan thing overboard and having pizza for dinner tonight.
This whole thing has really made me think about the role that food plays in my life. I am the first person to proclaim the wonders of sharing a good meal with friends, but then I remember the times that I've used food to comfort or reward myself, and it makes me kind of sad. Haven't I evolved beyond that point? Or matured beyond that point? What is it about our society that says: "You're good. To show you how good you are, you get to eat this cookie." Think about those messages. Why can't we communicate how much we value one another in other ways? I value you and your health, here's a beet. High five. Or, how about, I value you, let's spend some quality time together. I dunno. I know that someday I'll have kids and I'll shove a fistful of oreos into their mouths just to have silence for the amount of time it takes for them to chew and swallow, but I hope that I also communicate my approval and appreciation in other ways too.
Oh, and the title of this post - this week someone asked how the veganism was going and I said that I was being a "sneaky vegan." What I mean by that is that I've been eating a lot of processed soy and a lot of things that I shouldn't be eating only because they're vegan - for instance, a vegan cookie is still a cookie. Eating 5 vegan cookies may be better than eating 5 regular cookies, but it's still eating 5 cookies. I committed to this diet with the intention of focusing on whole foods and plants and I haven't really been doing so great at that. There are a million documentaries about how veganism is great for you, but I'd be interested to hear how veganism affects your body if you're NOT following a whole foods/plant based diet. What if all you eat is tofu and veganaise and fakon (fake bacon)? Does anyone know where I can find information on that?
I'm back to juicing. I really do feel good after drinking juice in the morning.
That's all I've got for you today. OK BYE! Have a good weekend.
Monday, March 04, 2013
Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
That is how I feel right now re: veganism and blogging. More specifically the blogging than the veganism.
It's been 14 days since my first day of veganism. I'd say overall I still feel better than I did before trying veganism. My skin is in total breakout mode right now though, which sucks, and I'm having regular headaches. Apparently both are symptoms of detoxification of your system. So just gotta press on to get to the other side.
Friday:
breakfast: bread + peanut butter. again. didn't have veggies to juice.
lunch: convinced a vendor to bring me a salad from Croutons (spinach + berries again).
dinner: ordered thai delivery. tried a new place. we liked it! victory! had drunken noodles with tofu and some corn fritters that were probably not vegan but LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING. (chris farley anyone?)
I seriously think of the above from SNL at least like 3x/week. I love Adam Sandler's face in that gif.
Saturday:
breakfast: vegan pancakes using this recipe from Marcus Samuelsson (delish! - but the recipe doesn't make much, so definitely double the recipe). We didn't have maple syrup (whoops) so we made do with jelly and peanut butter for our pancakes. You can taste the banana flavor, but I think I may have liked them more than regular pancakes because I didn't have a huge crash/food coma afterwards. Definitely worth a shot.
lunch: bean burger from Evolution in San Diego. That's right. We have vegan fast food restaurants here. Welcome to California. We had just taken the doggies to the park to run around before we left for the evening but it was SO HOT that none of them wanted to run. They all just wanted to stand in the shade and hide from other dogs slash the sun. So that was a bust.
dinner: Totally non-vegan. We drove up to Long Beach to see my Aunt TC, Uncle Bill, and cousins Therese and Billy (among other people) and ate at an Italian restaurant. Could we have eaten vegan dishes or made dishes vegan off their menu? Probably. But I didn't even feel like worrying about it. I want this diet choice to be a plus in my life, not some huge inconvenience when I'm trying to enjoy time with family. So I had linguine carbonara and Jeremy had penne with meatballs. And then, on the drive home, I stopped to get gas annnnnnd a Cadbury Egg because I NEEDED IT AND LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING. I figured I'd already eaten non-vegan once that night so the ship had sailed.
I got a caffeine free Diet Coke on the drive up and I didn't even finish it. I didn't even HALF finish it. I dunno. It's just sort of lost its appeal. It's a sad day.
Sunday:
breakfast: I don't even remember. I think I ate a spoonful of peanut butter.
lunch: leftover thai food from friday night.
dinner: salad that I made up (what? I'm a vegan chef now, don't worry about it). I went to Sprouts yesterday for the weekly grocery shop and the green beans were calling to me...they just looked so good. So I bought 'em. If a veggie calls to me, I'll buy it. If an aisle full of chocolate calls to me, I try not to buy it, but I still end up buying two dark chocolate bars, one with raspberries and one with orange (THEY WERE ON SALE). So anyway, I blanched the green beans then shocked them in an ice bath to stop the cooking so they were still green and crunchy. Then I toasted a handful of cashews on the stove, and added grape tomatoes, half an avocado, carrot shavings, baby arugula and spring mix, and some frozen corn that I'd roasted under the broiler until it was browning up a bit (in a good way, haha). I made a dressing from olive oil, the juice of 1 lime, dijon mustard (2-3 tablespoons) and red wine vinegar. Then I added salt + pepper. It was really good! Way better than I expected it would turn out.
Then after dinner I ate 4 vegan cookies (2 oatmeal raisin, 2 chocolate chip with walnuts which are the bomb) and finally caught up on the last few episodes of Dexter from this last season.
That show. Is so. Good.
Today I've eaten fruit. I am so lazy today. I had plenty of veggies to juice for breakfast but just did not feel like it. So I ate a banana instead. And for lunch, I brought some strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries and I'm just sort of nibbling them as I get hungry. I dunno. I'm uninspired. Sooooo yay.
It's been 14 days since my first day of veganism. I'd say overall I still feel better than I did before trying veganism. My skin is in total breakout mode right now though, which sucks, and I'm having regular headaches. Apparently both are symptoms of detoxification of your system. So just gotta press on to get to the other side.
Friday:
breakfast: bread + peanut butter. again. didn't have veggies to juice.
lunch: convinced a vendor to bring me a salad from Croutons (spinach + berries again).
dinner: ordered thai delivery. tried a new place. we liked it! victory! had drunken noodles with tofu and some corn fritters that were probably not vegan but LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING. (chris farley anyone?)
I seriously think of the above from SNL at least like 3x/week. I love Adam Sandler's face in that gif.
Saturday:
breakfast: vegan pancakes using this recipe from Marcus Samuelsson (delish! - but the recipe doesn't make much, so definitely double the recipe). We didn't have maple syrup (whoops) so we made do with jelly and peanut butter for our pancakes. You can taste the banana flavor, but I think I may have liked them more than regular pancakes because I didn't have a huge crash/food coma afterwards. Definitely worth a shot.
lunch: bean burger from Evolution in San Diego. That's right. We have vegan fast food restaurants here. Welcome to California. We had just taken the doggies to the park to run around before we left for the evening but it was SO HOT that none of them wanted to run. They all just wanted to stand in the shade and hide from other dogs slash the sun. So that was a bust.
dinner: Totally non-vegan. We drove up to Long Beach to see my Aunt TC, Uncle Bill, and cousins Therese and Billy (among other people) and ate at an Italian restaurant. Could we have eaten vegan dishes or made dishes vegan off their menu? Probably. But I didn't even feel like worrying about it. I want this diet choice to be a plus in my life, not some huge inconvenience when I'm trying to enjoy time with family. So I had linguine carbonara and Jeremy had penne with meatballs. And then, on the drive home, I stopped to get gas annnnnnd a Cadbury Egg because I NEEDED IT AND LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING. I figured I'd already eaten non-vegan once that night so the ship had sailed.
I got a caffeine free Diet Coke on the drive up and I didn't even finish it. I didn't even HALF finish it. I dunno. It's just sort of lost its appeal. It's a sad day.
Sunday:
breakfast: I don't even remember. I think I ate a spoonful of peanut butter.
lunch: leftover thai food from friday night.
dinner: salad that I made up (what? I'm a vegan chef now, don't worry about it). I went to Sprouts yesterday for the weekly grocery shop and the green beans were calling to me...they just looked so good. So I bought 'em. If a veggie calls to me, I'll buy it. If an aisle full of chocolate calls to me, I try not to buy it, but I still end up buying two dark chocolate bars, one with raspberries and one with orange (THEY WERE ON SALE). So anyway, I blanched the green beans then shocked them in an ice bath to stop the cooking so they were still green and crunchy. Then I toasted a handful of cashews on the stove, and added grape tomatoes, half an avocado, carrot shavings, baby arugula and spring mix, and some frozen corn that I'd roasted under the broiler until it was browning up a bit (in a good way, haha). I made a dressing from olive oil, the juice of 1 lime, dijon mustard (2-3 tablespoons) and red wine vinegar. Then I added salt + pepper. It was really good! Way better than I expected it would turn out.
Then after dinner I ate 4 vegan cookies (2 oatmeal raisin, 2 chocolate chip with walnuts which are the bomb) and finally caught up on the last few episodes of Dexter from this last season.
That show. Is so. Good.
Today I've eaten fruit. I am so lazy today. I had plenty of veggies to juice for breakfast but just did not feel like it. So I ate a banana instead. And for lunch, I brought some strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries and I'm just sort of nibbling them as I get hungry. I dunno. I'm uninspired. Sooooo yay.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
The ball is finally rolling
I'm really getting used to this vegan thing - but the challenges of being vegan are still present - I'll get to that in a minute.
Last night I got home and made Vegan Tofu Tostadas from Two Peas and their Pod (link in recipe name) -- this blog is LEGIT. And the tostadas were even more legit. Vegan or not, these things are delicious.
Jeremy isn't the biggest fan of tofu - which is understandable. A lot of people don't enjoy the texture. I personally really like it and find it strangely comforting, so I didn't have a problem with the amount of tofu in the recipe, but I knew Jerms might not enjoy it quite so much. Then I remembered that we had Field Roast Mexican Chipotle vegan grain sausages in the fridge (Thanks, Whole Foods), so I chopped one of those up and threw it in the pan to saute with the veggies and tofu. I love Morningstar "Chicken" patties and black bean/veggie burgers, etc, but I think this is the most I have ever enjoyed veggie/grain based "meat" products. It was REALLY tasty. So if you see Field Roast at your store, I recommend you try some (again, vegan or not)!
I'm not a huge fan of "cooking spray" so I used olive oil on the corn tortillas rather than cooking spray, but I think next time I'd do as I was told - the oil completely soaked the tortillas and made them tough. I definitely used too much. Still tasty, though. I think I would also add black beans just because I pretty much add black beans to everything I can. Oh, and we'd run out of chili powder the night before, so I just used taco seasoning instead. Because really, what isn't better with taco seasoning?
We finished them off with chipotle flavored Tabasco sauce and they were delish. I highly recommend this recipe to anyone who is willing to try it! Here's the final product:
I finished off the night by finishing off the peanut butter cookie I'd picked up at Robek's during lunch the other day. I threw all the cookies in the freezer, which I love...frozen treats = more time to savor them :)
This morning the fridge was still devoid of cucumbers (I told it to grow some overnight but it clearly did not listen) so I went back to the sprouted grain bread with Trader Joe's salted crunchy peanut butter - which is really good, I feel the need to repeat that.
On to the challenges of being vegan -- whenever we have a meeting here that lasts through lunch with a vendor who is visiting from out of town, they will order lunch into the office and have it delivered and set up outside our meeting. So, that was the situation today, and they ordered from a place called Champagne Bakery that is just obscenely good in an entirely non-vegan way. Their cookies are works of art, and we all know how much I appreciate a good cookie. And their sandwiches are served on these baguettes that are so inappropriately good. Anyway, I'm obviously unnecessarily torturing myself/you right now. So I get out of my meeting to get lunch and I'm all excited, thinking that obviously they'll have some sort of vegetarian sandwich but...no. There were none. Or if there were, they were gone before I got there. And in all likelihood, if the sandwich wasn't centered around meat, it would have been centered around cheese, which I can't eat either. So I move down the line and luckily, there was a green salad that had no dairy (plus a vinaigrette option) and a large, fresh, delicious fruit salad. So I loaded my plate with greens and fruit and grabbed a bottle of water. Diet Coke, while vegan, is also something I'm staying away from at the moment, so just had to turn around and walk the other way, in the opposite direction of those lovely lovely cookies and pastries that were sitting at the end of the line. It's like the cookies and the Diet Coke were grouping themselves together to call out to me like, look, your one stop shop for not making good choices for yourself anymore. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that eating cookies and drinking Diet Coke are INHERENTLY bad choices. I could never say that and still be who I am. But for me, right now, I feel like it's a better choice to steer clear of them and load up on more fruit and veggies. So yeah. Sometimes, being a vegan straight up blows.
Not sure what's for dinner tonight. Jeremy has had a couple of friends unexpectedly drop into town so I think he'll be going out to dinner with them. Which means I'll probably make the "buffalo" cauliflower dish I've had my eye on that Jeremy was not thrilled about trying. Or maybe chili leftovers. Or maybe this is boring for other people to read. But I definitely see another vegan cookie in my near near future...
Hope everyone's having a great week and is ready for Friday and the weekend! :)
Last night I got home and made Vegan Tofu Tostadas from Two Peas and their Pod (link in recipe name) -- this blog is LEGIT. And the tostadas were even more legit. Vegan or not, these things are delicious.
Jeremy isn't the biggest fan of tofu - which is understandable. A lot of people don't enjoy the texture. I personally really like it and find it strangely comforting, so I didn't have a problem with the amount of tofu in the recipe, but I knew Jerms might not enjoy it quite so much. Then I remembered that we had Field Roast Mexican Chipotle vegan grain sausages in the fridge (Thanks, Whole Foods), so I chopped one of those up and threw it in the pan to saute with the veggies and tofu. I love Morningstar "Chicken" patties and black bean/veggie burgers, etc, but I think this is the most I have ever enjoyed veggie/grain based "meat" products. It was REALLY tasty. So if you see Field Roast at your store, I recommend you try some (again, vegan or not)!
I'm not a huge fan of "cooking spray" so I used olive oil on the corn tortillas rather than cooking spray, but I think next time I'd do as I was told - the oil completely soaked the tortillas and made them tough. I definitely used too much. Still tasty, though. I think I would also add black beans just because I pretty much add black beans to everything I can. Oh, and we'd run out of chili powder the night before, so I just used taco seasoning instead. Because really, what isn't better with taco seasoning?
We finished them off with chipotle flavored Tabasco sauce and they were delish. I highly recommend this recipe to anyone who is willing to try it! Here's the final product:
I finished off the night by finishing off the peanut butter cookie I'd picked up at Robek's during lunch the other day. I threw all the cookies in the freezer, which I love...frozen treats = more time to savor them :)
This morning the fridge was still devoid of cucumbers (I told it to grow some overnight but it clearly did not listen) so I went back to the sprouted grain bread with Trader Joe's salted crunchy peanut butter - which is really good, I feel the need to repeat that.
On to the challenges of being vegan -- whenever we have a meeting here that lasts through lunch with a vendor who is visiting from out of town, they will order lunch into the office and have it delivered and set up outside our meeting. So, that was the situation today, and they ordered from a place called Champagne Bakery that is just obscenely good in an entirely non-vegan way. Their cookies are works of art, and we all know how much I appreciate a good cookie. And their sandwiches are served on these baguettes that are so inappropriately good. Anyway, I'm obviously unnecessarily torturing myself/you right now. So I get out of my meeting to get lunch and I'm all excited, thinking that obviously they'll have some sort of vegetarian sandwich but...no. There were none. Or if there were, they were gone before I got there. And in all likelihood, if the sandwich wasn't centered around meat, it would have been centered around cheese, which I can't eat either. So I move down the line and luckily, there was a green salad that had no dairy (plus a vinaigrette option) and a large, fresh, delicious fruit salad. So I loaded my plate with greens and fruit and grabbed a bottle of water. Diet Coke, while vegan, is also something I'm staying away from at the moment, so just had to turn around and walk the other way, in the opposite direction of those lovely lovely cookies and pastries that were sitting at the end of the line. It's like the cookies and the Diet Coke were grouping themselves together to call out to me like, look, your one stop shop for not making good choices for yourself anymore. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that eating cookies and drinking Diet Coke are INHERENTLY bad choices. I could never say that and still be who I am. But for me, right now, I feel like it's a better choice to steer clear of them and load up on more fruit and veggies. So yeah. Sometimes, being a vegan straight up blows.
Not sure what's for dinner tonight. Jeremy has had a couple of friends unexpectedly drop into town so I think he'll be going out to dinner with them. Which means I'll probably make the "buffalo" cauliflower dish I've had my eye on that Jeremy was not thrilled about trying. Or maybe chili leftovers. Or maybe this is boring for other people to read. But I definitely see another vegan cookie in my near near future...
Hope everyone's having a great week and is ready for Friday and the weekend! :)
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Day I'm tired of counting...it's Wednesday.
Yesterday ended on a high note, vegan-wise. The chili (you can find the recipe here) was really tasty. Jeremy added more of the spices than the recipe called for, due to the fact that we'd heard it was bland. I topped mine with some nutritional yeast (which is inactive yeast flakes that have a nutty/cheesy/salty taste to them and are actually quite nutritious) which tasted good. We also cut up an avocado and shared that to top our chili. Overall, I'd say the recipe was really good, but I'd add more quinoa next time to increase the body of the chili.Also, the prep time that is called for in the recipe (10 minutes) is only applicable to Iron Chefs. I cannot chop that many vegetables in that much time. It probably took me 30 minutes of chopping to get everything ready, and then I had my super helpful sous chef opening cans, rinsing beans, and measuring spices on the side. So - allow yourself a bit more time, and make the quinoa ahead of time as well.
(While I'm at it...here are the black bean quinoa burgers we made the other night).
THENNNNNNN after dinner we watched Pitch Perfect which arrived on Blu Ray from amazon yesterday (I loved it so I bought it for keeps). Have you seen that movie? If you haven't, please do so immediately. It's actually hilarious, and the songs are awesome. AND, for my fellow wahoos, the Hullabahoos are in the movie! I actually shushed Jeremy really aggressively at the point that they said "From the University of Virginia, the Hullabahoos!" and he may have gotten mad for a few minutes...haha. During Pitch Perfect, we enjoyed our vegan Red Velvet cupcakes from Sprinkles...they were SO GOOD! Honestly, they may have been better than traditional Sprinkles Red Velvet cupcakes. They use coconut oil (which you can taste) and a tofu based frosting (can't taste that) and the cake is super moist. Yum! I'll definitely be buying those in the future.
Last night before bed I decided to give chamomile tea a shot at relaxing me and making me sleep well, and it actually did help I think. I felt relaxed before bed and slept relatively better than I have been sleeping generally. So that's a win.
This morning I was not feeling like juicing (also didn't have any cucumbers left) so I had a piece of my sprouted grain bread with Trader Joe's salted crunchy peanut butter for breakfast (their natural PB is better than Whole Foods, IMO). The lovely people from Kong brought lunch for us today and I ordered a sandwich with roasted red peppers, hummus, arugula, tomatoes, and cucumbers. It was delish! I think the amount of oil in the bread really helped, but it was a welcome break from my spinach salad doldrums.
Speaking of which, Molly Laufer shared this blog with me as another resource for vegan recipes, as well as sending me an email full of her favorite vegan recipes that I could make! How awesome is that? Thanks again Smolls! :)
So, lessons learned so far:
A special HELLO to Molly and Annie Vaughn who are likely reading this together around 3 am ;-)
(While I'm at it...here are the black bean quinoa burgers we made the other night).
THENNNNNNN after dinner we watched Pitch Perfect which arrived on Blu Ray from amazon yesterday (I loved it so I bought it for keeps). Have you seen that movie? If you haven't, please do so immediately. It's actually hilarious, and the songs are awesome. AND, for my fellow wahoos, the Hullabahoos are in the movie! I actually shushed Jeremy really aggressively at the point that they said "From the University of Virginia, the Hullabahoos!" and he may have gotten mad for a few minutes...haha. During Pitch Perfect, we enjoyed our vegan Red Velvet cupcakes from Sprinkles...they were SO GOOD! Honestly, they may have been better than traditional Sprinkles Red Velvet cupcakes. They use coconut oil (which you can taste) and a tofu based frosting (can't taste that) and the cake is super moist. Yum! I'll definitely be buying those in the future.
Last night before bed I decided to give chamomile tea a shot at relaxing me and making me sleep well, and it actually did help I think. I felt relaxed before bed and slept relatively better than I have been sleeping generally. So that's a win.
This morning I was not feeling like juicing (also didn't have any cucumbers left) so I had a piece of my sprouted grain bread with Trader Joe's salted crunchy peanut butter for breakfast (their natural PB is better than Whole Foods, IMO). The lovely people from Kong brought lunch for us today and I ordered a sandwich with roasted red peppers, hummus, arugula, tomatoes, and cucumbers. It was delish! I think the amount of oil in the bread really helped, but it was a welcome break from my spinach salad doldrums.
Speaking of which, Molly Laufer shared this blog with me as another resource for vegan recipes, as well as sending me an email full of her favorite vegan recipes that I could make! How awesome is that? Thanks again Smolls! :)
So, lessons learned so far:
- Being vegan requires a lot of forethought
- Being vegan is a lot easier with support from your friends :)
A special HELLO to Molly and Annie Vaughn who are likely reading this together around 3 am ;-)
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Days 8 and 9
So, both yesterday and today I've woken up feeling a little more like I'm down/dragging than I had over the past week. Is it because of all the sugar I ate the night before? I don't know. But just an observation.
Yesterday I had juice for breakfast again. I don't know why, but I had a much harder time than usual getting it down. I finished it, but it took some work to make it happen. Salad for lunch again, but feeling bored with the salad by now as well. Need to start planning ahead and packing my lunches so I don't get so bored with the take out options I have. In the afternoon, my boss's boss (Tracie) had her birthday, and people had brought in Sprinkles cupcakes. I hadn't broadcasted my newfound veganism around the office, so there weren't vegan options, and Tracie said if I didn't eat a cupcake I was fired, sooooo I had a carrot cupcake (I mean, twist my arm, honestly). I confessed to Jeremy and he had a beer as his special treat last night :) So like I said...not like, awkwardly vegan. Just sort of vegan as much as possible. For dinner we had these black bean quinoa burgers I made from a recipe out of Runner's World that was actually pretty darn good. The only thing that was bad was the fact that I dropped 1 out of the 4 patties I made on the ground in the living room and so didn't have much to eat. Luckily, Jeremy had made an awesome salad, so I had that.
After dinner, I still wasn't satisfied, and I had eaten all of the vegan cookies over the weekend, so I had a piece of sprouted grain bread with earth balance soy spread and raspberry jelly for dessert. Then I had a handful of bagel chips. Then I had a few handfuls of peanuts. So, needless to say, yesterday I did not do a great job of keeping myself satisfied with enough protein and fiber. Something to work on.
Today I had juice for breakfast AND lunch (will explain). Breakfast was spirulina, cucumbers, carrot, celery, and ginger. Not sure why, but easier to get down than yesterday. Then I went to work for a meeting, and then I went to the dentist, where I had 3 teeth drilled and filled and 3 sealants replaced. I go to the dentist every 6 months. I had not been behind in my dental treatments. Apparently the past 6 months my teeth just decided to GIVE UP. So anyway, that was THE WORST. After that, I clearly didn't want to eat solid foods, so I went to a local juice place and got juice for lunch (kale, spinach, apples, lemons, celery and cucumber). Also pretty tasty. They ALSO had vegan cookies! Yay! So I got 4 (what? back off). Peanut butter, chocolate chip, double chocolate, and pumpkin! I broke into the peanut butter cookie for my 3 pm snack and I'm going to throw the rest in the freezer tonight.
So then I go to my 3:30 meeting and they had - get this - 6 DOZEN SPRINKLES CUPCAKES. What? Like, were they specifically trying to torture me? But then - remember, I work in California - they announced that a dozen of those cupcakes were VEGAN RED VELVET. Sooooo don't be surprised that I helped myself to two of those cupcakes to take home and share with Jeremy tonight. Pretty exciting, right? So now, considering that I knocked everyone down in an attempt to get to the box first, everyone in the office knows I'm trying veganism, and I imagine those vegan cupcakes will make another appearance sometime soon.
I keep announcing, though, the superiority of Georgetown Cupcakes to Sprinkles every time we have them (I don't start the conversation, I promise) and now everyone is curious. Considering that I probably won't have a visitor from the east coast anytime soon, I looked into shipping options. They will ship them here overnight via FedEx for $29/dozen plus $26 shipping for the 1st dozen and $15 shipping for each dozen thereafter. So I said I'd ship them in for my boss or my counterpart's birthday, and then they remembered that my birthday is coming up. I told them not to order them for me (and I sincerely hope they don't), but who knows, maybe we'll have a bit of the east coast here for my birthday!
Anyway, up to bat tonight is the vegan quinoa chili recipe I found on Pinterest (my saving grace). Kelly and her husband Ryan already tried it and said it was a little bland, so we may need to spice it up a notch. We'll see! :) Hope everyone is having a good start to their week.
Yesterday I had juice for breakfast again. I don't know why, but I had a much harder time than usual getting it down. I finished it, but it took some work to make it happen. Salad for lunch again, but feeling bored with the salad by now as well. Need to start planning ahead and packing my lunches so I don't get so bored with the take out options I have. In the afternoon, my boss's boss (Tracie) had her birthday, and people had brought in Sprinkles cupcakes. I hadn't broadcasted my newfound veganism around the office, so there weren't vegan options, and Tracie said if I didn't eat a cupcake I was fired, sooooo I had a carrot cupcake (I mean, twist my arm, honestly). I confessed to Jeremy and he had a beer as his special treat last night :) So like I said...not like, awkwardly vegan. Just sort of vegan as much as possible. For dinner we had these black bean quinoa burgers I made from a recipe out of Runner's World that was actually pretty darn good. The only thing that was bad was the fact that I dropped 1 out of the 4 patties I made on the ground in the living room and so didn't have much to eat. Luckily, Jeremy had made an awesome salad, so I had that.
After dinner, I still wasn't satisfied, and I had eaten all of the vegan cookies over the weekend, so I had a piece of sprouted grain bread with earth balance soy spread and raspberry jelly for dessert. Then I had a handful of bagel chips. Then I had a few handfuls of peanuts. So, needless to say, yesterday I did not do a great job of keeping myself satisfied with enough protein and fiber. Something to work on.
Today I had juice for breakfast AND lunch (will explain). Breakfast was spirulina, cucumbers, carrot, celery, and ginger. Not sure why, but easier to get down than yesterday. Then I went to work for a meeting, and then I went to the dentist, where I had 3 teeth drilled and filled and 3 sealants replaced. I go to the dentist every 6 months. I had not been behind in my dental treatments. Apparently the past 6 months my teeth just decided to GIVE UP. So anyway, that was THE WORST. After that, I clearly didn't want to eat solid foods, so I went to a local juice place and got juice for lunch (kale, spinach, apples, lemons, celery and cucumber). Also pretty tasty. They ALSO had vegan cookies! Yay! So I got 4 (what? back off). Peanut butter, chocolate chip, double chocolate, and pumpkin! I broke into the peanut butter cookie for my 3 pm snack and I'm going to throw the rest in the freezer tonight.
So then I go to my 3:30 meeting and they had - get this - 6 DOZEN SPRINKLES CUPCAKES. What? Like, were they specifically trying to torture me? But then - remember, I work in California - they announced that a dozen of those cupcakes were VEGAN RED VELVET. Sooooo don't be surprised that I helped myself to two of those cupcakes to take home and share with Jeremy tonight. Pretty exciting, right? So now, considering that I knocked everyone down in an attempt to get to the box first, everyone in the office knows I'm trying veganism, and I imagine those vegan cupcakes will make another appearance sometime soon.
I keep announcing, though, the superiority of Georgetown Cupcakes to Sprinkles every time we have them (I don't start the conversation, I promise) and now everyone is curious. Considering that I probably won't have a visitor from the east coast anytime soon, I looked into shipping options. They will ship them here overnight via FedEx for $29/dozen plus $26 shipping for the 1st dozen and $15 shipping for each dozen thereafter. So I said I'd ship them in for my boss or my counterpart's birthday, and then they remembered that my birthday is coming up. I told them not to order them for me (and I sincerely hope they don't), but who knows, maybe we'll have a bit of the east coast here for my birthday!
Anyway, up to bat tonight is the vegan quinoa chili recipe I found on Pinterest (my saving grace). Kelly and her husband Ryan already tried it and said it was a little bland, so we may need to spice it up a notch. We'll see! :) Hope everyone is having a good start to their week.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Day 7
Heyo.
Last night for dinner Jeremy and I ventured out to "Veg-n-Out"...a local (North Park) restaurant specializing in vegetarian and vegan cuisine. We were both excited to try a restaurant that specialized in meat-free dishes; I think we (I) thought that it would offer us some exciting new ideas, etc. Anyway, it was a little disappointing. I had a vegan chili dog with a side salad and Jeremy had a vegan burger with two different side salads. Neither of us felt as good/light after leaving that restaurant as we did after eating other vegan meals. I think what bugged me was that the meals were based on vegan imitations of meals that would normally include meat. Why not just have meals that are vegan solely because they do not include animal products? More on that later.
We finished the vegan cookies last night.
Today was our agreed upon "cheat day" if we were feeling it.
I slept in then had a piece of sprouted grain bread with peanut butter for breakfast before taking the dogs on another long walk/hike on the trails. For lunch, Jeremy and I headed to the local farmer's market to hit up the Green Truck for some fast vegetarian/organic food. We both had the breakfast tacos - scrambled eggs on corn tortillas with cheddar cheese, chipotle sauce, arugula, avocado, and...I can't remember what else. Maybe that was it. Anyway, it was ridiculously delicious. I don't think I realized how much I missed eggs. I didn't think I'd miss eggs as much as I do. And cheddar cheese? Omg. I don't care what people tell you - vegan cheese is NOT THE SAME AS NORMAL CHEESE. It's just NOT. So anyway, it was obscenely delicious.
We ate them on the way to the dog beach in Coronado where Mugsy ran around stealing tennis balls from other dogs and Ronin ran away from us almost all the way back to the car (about a quarter mile away) because he knows that the beach is the place where Jeremy throws him into the ocean against his will. So that was a big failure.
After that, we made our grocery list for the week and went to Sprouts to pick everything up. I think we did pretty well - we got a TON of fruits and veggies (fresh, canned, and frozen) along with other items such as hummus and pita chips. It was way less expensive than I anticipated it being, and while Sprouts was out of control busy, it was manageable because we split the list up by sections of the store and then divided and conquered. Teamwork, high five!
We had a snack of edamame in the late afternoon while watching the Oscars red carpet and then I made this dish for dinner and we LOVED it. (For those of you who don't want to click the link, it's "spicy quinoa" in avocado bowls). I didn't make mine quite as pretty as the picture - I just made it into a salad. But it was delicious nonetheless! And I think my favorite part honestly was the cashew "sour cream" made by putting a cup of cashews in the food processor with some apple cider vinegar and water. It was actually really tasty. And while it tasted nothing at all like sour cream, it was still a nice accompaniment to the meal. So if you're looking for a good salad (vegan or not)...use the recipe in the link. Lesson of the day - taco seasoning makes everything taste better.
And then, to cap off "cheat day" I had a bunch of Thin Mints. Because really, how could you pass that up? I think it'll be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow compared to days after eating 100% vegan.
Last night for dinner Jeremy and I ventured out to "Veg-n-Out"...a local (North Park) restaurant specializing in vegetarian and vegan cuisine. We were both excited to try a restaurant that specialized in meat-free dishes; I think we (I) thought that it would offer us some exciting new ideas, etc. Anyway, it was a little disappointing. I had a vegan chili dog with a side salad and Jeremy had a vegan burger with two different side salads. Neither of us felt as good/light after leaving that restaurant as we did after eating other vegan meals. I think what bugged me was that the meals were based on vegan imitations of meals that would normally include meat. Why not just have meals that are vegan solely because they do not include animal products? More on that later.
We finished the vegan cookies last night.
Today was our agreed upon "cheat day" if we were feeling it.
I slept in then had a piece of sprouted grain bread with peanut butter for breakfast before taking the dogs on another long walk/hike on the trails. For lunch, Jeremy and I headed to the local farmer's market to hit up the Green Truck for some fast vegetarian/organic food. We both had the breakfast tacos - scrambled eggs on corn tortillas with cheddar cheese, chipotle sauce, arugula, avocado, and...I can't remember what else. Maybe that was it. Anyway, it was ridiculously delicious. I don't think I realized how much I missed eggs. I didn't think I'd miss eggs as much as I do. And cheddar cheese? Omg. I don't care what people tell you - vegan cheese is NOT THE SAME AS NORMAL CHEESE. It's just NOT. So anyway, it was obscenely delicious.
We ate them on the way to the dog beach in Coronado where Mugsy ran around stealing tennis balls from other dogs and Ronin ran away from us almost all the way back to the car (about a quarter mile away) because he knows that the beach is the place where Jeremy throws him into the ocean against his will. So that was a big failure.
After that, we made our grocery list for the week and went to Sprouts to pick everything up. I think we did pretty well - we got a TON of fruits and veggies (fresh, canned, and frozen) along with other items such as hummus and pita chips. It was way less expensive than I anticipated it being, and while Sprouts was out of control busy, it was manageable because we split the list up by sections of the store and then divided and conquered. Teamwork, high five!
We had a snack of edamame in the late afternoon while watching the Oscars red carpet and then I made this dish for dinner and we LOVED it. (For those of you who don't want to click the link, it's "spicy quinoa" in avocado bowls). I didn't make mine quite as pretty as the picture - I just made it into a salad. But it was delicious nonetheless! And I think my favorite part honestly was the cashew "sour cream" made by putting a cup of cashews in the food processor with some apple cider vinegar and water. It was actually really tasty. And while it tasted nothing at all like sour cream, it was still a nice accompaniment to the meal. So if you're looking for a good salad (vegan or not)...use the recipe in the link. Lesson of the day - taco seasoning makes everything taste better.
And then, to cap off "cheat day" I had a bunch of Thin Mints. Because really, how could you pass that up? I think it'll be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow compared to days after eating 100% vegan.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Day 6
So last night I got home from work and ate another vegan cookie (or two)...they are so good!
For dinner, Jerms and I decided to order delivery. We used to order delivery seriously like every night. But trying the vegan diet has helped us cook at home more because we need to plan ahead to make sure we have vegan options. Luckily, there is a lot of Indian food that is also vegan, so we ordered Indian delivery. Jeremy had a cauliflower dish and I had a chickpea dish. Since we've discovered that naan is not in fact vegan, we ordered roti, which is a vegan whole wheat bread that is baked in the tandoor. We also had basmati rice, natch.
After dinner there may have been more cookies consumed. I'm beginning to think that discovering these vegan cookies was a bad thing.
Today I got up late after sleeping in a bit and juiced before taking the dogs for a long walk in the park. My juice consisted of 1 cucumber (it made a ton of juice) and I think 3 large carrots. Also, 1 tsp of spirulina. I'm really having a hard time with the spirulina powder. Honestly, it does not taste bad at all. It kind of tastes good. But the idea of eating/drinking algae is really hard for me. So I've taken to closing my eyes and just throwing the juice back.
For lunch we decided to go out so we went to Burger Lounge. Molly Laufer originally introduced us to Burger Lounge when we visited San Diego in the summer of 2011...it was love at first bite. Just please come visit us in San Diego and we will take you to Burger Lounge. The funny thing is that the item I've always ordered there -- the quinoa burger -- is vegan! So we had a quinoa burger that we split between ourselves, a vegetable salad with lemon vinaigrette, and french fries (yummm!). I decided to have my Diet Coke fix today instead of tomorrow because it just looked so darn good when we got to the restaurant. And honestly...I love Diet Coke, but I'm not sure I like the way it makes me feel anymore. So I dunno if I'll continue drinking it in the future. I'm sure I'll still have the occasional DC...but it probably won't be a regular thing anymore -- not that it really has been in the past few weeks, but ya know.
Anyway, it's great to know that we can still get a meal at a favorite San Diego restaurant while staying committed to veganism.
On the way home from Burger Lounge we stopped to run a few errands, and one of our errands was to find the Sprouts grocery store that Brian and Kathy told us about. It's super close - about 5 or 6 blocks from our place (but over a couple of major roads AND major hills so I'm not sure we'll be walking there anytime soon). I am so excited that we found this market - it's like Whole Foods in terms of offering but more like a chain store in terms of prices! AND they have a ton of bulk bins offering everything from roasted almonds and candy to ground flax seeds and almond meal. Awesome selection and we're looking forward to going back there again soon. It makes me wonder if this is what the Central Markets are like in Texas? I haven't ever been to one so I really have no idea, but I wonder? Sarah could tell me I'm sure!
Last night we watched the documentary Forks Over Knives (streaming on Netflix) and I thought it was really informative and interesting. Focusing more on heart disease than cancer this time, and less of a focus on animal cruelty. While I certainly appreciate the animal cruelty angle of the argument, I don't necessarily want to watch documentaries on it because honestly it just makes me extremely sad. Anyway, I recommend the documentary if you're looking for something good to watch. Also, found a ton of exciting vegan recipes while cruising Pinterest! Soooo look out kitchen, here comes some variety in vegan cooking!
For dinner, Jerms and I decided to order delivery. We used to order delivery seriously like every night. But trying the vegan diet has helped us cook at home more because we need to plan ahead to make sure we have vegan options. Luckily, there is a lot of Indian food that is also vegan, so we ordered Indian delivery. Jeremy had a cauliflower dish and I had a chickpea dish. Since we've discovered that naan is not in fact vegan, we ordered roti, which is a vegan whole wheat bread that is baked in the tandoor. We also had basmati rice, natch.
After dinner there may have been more cookies consumed. I'm beginning to think that discovering these vegan cookies was a bad thing.
Today I got up late after sleeping in a bit and juiced before taking the dogs for a long walk in the park. My juice consisted of 1 cucumber (it made a ton of juice) and I think 3 large carrots. Also, 1 tsp of spirulina. I'm really having a hard time with the spirulina powder. Honestly, it does not taste bad at all. It kind of tastes good. But the idea of eating/drinking algae is really hard for me. So I've taken to closing my eyes and just throwing the juice back.
For lunch we decided to go out so we went to Burger Lounge. Molly Laufer originally introduced us to Burger Lounge when we visited San Diego in the summer of 2011...it was love at first bite. Just please come visit us in San Diego and we will take you to Burger Lounge. The funny thing is that the item I've always ordered there -- the quinoa burger -- is vegan! So we had a quinoa burger that we split between ourselves, a vegetable salad with lemon vinaigrette, and french fries (yummm!). I decided to have my Diet Coke fix today instead of tomorrow because it just looked so darn good when we got to the restaurant. And honestly...I love Diet Coke, but I'm not sure I like the way it makes me feel anymore. So I dunno if I'll continue drinking it in the future. I'm sure I'll still have the occasional DC...but it probably won't be a regular thing anymore -- not that it really has been in the past few weeks, but ya know.
Anyway, it's great to know that we can still get a meal at a favorite San Diego restaurant while staying committed to veganism.
On the way home from Burger Lounge we stopped to run a few errands, and one of our errands was to find the Sprouts grocery store that Brian and Kathy told us about. It's super close - about 5 or 6 blocks from our place (but over a couple of major roads AND major hills so I'm not sure we'll be walking there anytime soon). I am so excited that we found this market - it's like Whole Foods in terms of offering but more like a chain store in terms of prices! AND they have a ton of bulk bins offering everything from roasted almonds and candy to ground flax seeds and almond meal. Awesome selection and we're looking forward to going back there again soon. It makes me wonder if this is what the Central Markets are like in Texas? I haven't ever been to one so I really have no idea, but I wonder? Sarah could tell me I'm sure!
Last night we watched the documentary Forks Over Knives (streaming on Netflix) and I thought it was really informative and interesting. Focusing more on heart disease than cancer this time, and less of a focus on animal cruelty. While I certainly appreciate the animal cruelty angle of the argument, I don't necessarily want to watch documentaries on it because honestly it just makes me extremely sad. Anyway, I recommend the documentary if you're looking for something good to watch. Also, found a ton of exciting vegan recipes while cruising Pinterest! Soooo look out kitchen, here comes some variety in vegan cooking!
Friday, February 22, 2013
Days four and five
OK so you know most of what happened yesterday...so, picking up where I left off...
I went home after work (it took me an hour to get home. Yep, an hour to go about 12 miles...thanks, SoCal) and started making the sides we were bringing to Brian and Kathy's for our dinner with them. Jeremy made roasted red potatoes with garlic and fresh rosemary, and I made roast brussel sprouts. They both turned out well and I was able to eat them for my dinner w/o lamb and feel full. I felt impressive because Kathy said sprouts intimidated her so I was able to tell her how easy it is to make them...so that was fun.
We had an awesome time over at Brian and Kathy's but it was really funny because I had told them that I was trying veganism for a spell, and Brian kept offering me things that aren't vegan. He certainly wasn't doing it on purpose, but I couldn't tell if he forgot I was vegan or didn't know those things were not vegan. For example: rice krispie treats (butter), a glass of milk (um, milk), and ice cream (um, cream, haha). The worst thing to turn down was the rice krispie treat. I wasn't too torn up about the glass of milk or the ice cream (don't get me wrong, I love ice cream, I'm just very specific about it), but the rice krispie treats just looked SO GOOD. But I held strong! For now, haha. But honestly, the only reason I could withstand the temptation was because I knew I had a special treat waiting for me at home:
Jeremy went to Whole Foods yesterday because he knew I was craving cookies and found vegan cookies for me! And let me tell you -vegan or not - these cookies are delicious. I think I might have forgotten, momentarily, that vegan does not mean fat free or calorie free, and I ate either 3 or 4 cookies before I looked at the nutrition information and realized I had just consumed more than half of my recommended daily allowance for fat. Whoops. So, vegan cookies are unfortunately just like regular cookies - they taste awesome and they're not the greatest things for you. Oh well.
Today I have had:
breakfast: juice...carrots...cucumbers...celery...ginger root...spirulina powder
lunch: spinach salad with candied walnuts, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries, balsamic vinaigrette
Also, I just want to reiterate that I am not trying veganism to lose weight or the sake of vanity. I am honestly trying it for reasons that have nothing to do with weight. And I'm listing all my meals here for two reasons: 1) I want to be able to look back and say "hmmm, i felt good on friday, what did i eat on thursday that could have influenced that?" and 2) I want to show that being vegan isn't as scary as people might think and there is a wide variety of foods that one can eat while trying a restricted diet for other reasons.
And, as Lizzy pointed out to me yesterday, Gooey Brownie is in fact, vegan. So, ya know, gold star for veganism and gooey brownie there.
As for how I'm feeling - I feel well. I feel less tired/more energized. I slept well last night - better than I usually do. Jeremy and I built 1 cheat day/week into our diet and said it would be Sunday, but Jeremy used his cheat day yesterday at Brian and Kathy's place. I used mine kind of accidentally when I ate the non-vegan naan (Paul made the joke that it was naan-vegan which was quite clever), but I still plan on potentially having a Diet Coke on Sunday. As for whether I'll indulge in other dairy products? I dunno, honestly. It's kind of unlikely. I just don't miss them THAT much (I say after just finishing my lunch and not feeling hungry...wait 'til hunger strikes again and I'll be scaling a mountain of cheese). And with those new cookies, I'm kind of set for the time being. But Diet Coke...I miss you.
On a different note entirely unrelated to veganism, today I went back to the CA DMV for the 2nd time to try to register the Thundercat here. I offer you a piece of advice: if you ever move to California, either keep your plates registered in your state of previous residence for as long as possible, or buy a new car here. And if you choose option #1, be very careful to never get pulled over (or if you do get pulled over, be prepared to lie about what you're doing in CA and how long you're staying).
There are a number of things you have to do when you move across the country. But by far - registering my car in the state of California is the hardest of all those things. I have still not been successful.
Luckily, Jeremy has volunteered to complete the process for me next week. But seriously. California is on thin ice.
I went home after work (it took me an hour to get home. Yep, an hour to go about 12 miles...thanks, SoCal) and started making the sides we were bringing to Brian and Kathy's for our dinner with them. Jeremy made roasted red potatoes with garlic and fresh rosemary, and I made roast brussel sprouts. They both turned out well and I was able to eat them for my dinner w/o lamb and feel full. I felt impressive because Kathy said sprouts intimidated her so I was able to tell her how easy it is to make them...so that was fun.
We had an awesome time over at Brian and Kathy's but it was really funny because I had told them that I was trying veganism for a spell, and Brian kept offering me things that aren't vegan. He certainly wasn't doing it on purpose, but I couldn't tell if he forgot I was vegan or didn't know those things were not vegan. For example: rice krispie treats (butter), a glass of milk (um, milk), and ice cream (um, cream, haha). The worst thing to turn down was the rice krispie treat. I wasn't too torn up about the glass of milk or the ice cream (don't get me wrong, I love ice cream, I'm just very specific about it), but the rice krispie treats just looked SO GOOD. But I held strong! For now, haha. But honestly, the only reason I could withstand the temptation was because I knew I had a special treat waiting for me at home:
Jeremy went to Whole Foods yesterday because he knew I was craving cookies and found vegan cookies for me! And let me tell you -vegan or not - these cookies are delicious. I think I might have forgotten, momentarily, that vegan does not mean fat free or calorie free, and I ate either 3 or 4 cookies before I looked at the nutrition information and realized I had just consumed more than half of my recommended daily allowance for fat. Whoops. So, vegan cookies are unfortunately just like regular cookies - they taste awesome and they're not the greatest things for you. Oh well.
Today I have had:
breakfast: juice...carrots...cucumbers...celery...ginger root...spirulina powder
lunch: spinach salad with candied walnuts, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries, balsamic vinaigrette
Also, I just want to reiterate that I am not trying veganism to lose weight or the sake of vanity. I am honestly trying it for reasons that have nothing to do with weight. And I'm listing all my meals here for two reasons: 1) I want to be able to look back and say "hmmm, i felt good on friday, what did i eat on thursday that could have influenced that?" and 2) I want to show that being vegan isn't as scary as people might think and there is a wide variety of foods that one can eat while trying a restricted diet for other reasons.
And, as Lizzy pointed out to me yesterday, Gooey Brownie is in fact, vegan. So, ya know, gold star for veganism and gooey brownie there.
As for how I'm feeling - I feel well. I feel less tired/more energized. I slept well last night - better than I usually do. Jeremy and I built 1 cheat day/week into our diet and said it would be Sunday, but Jeremy used his cheat day yesterday at Brian and Kathy's place. I used mine kind of accidentally when I ate the non-vegan naan (Paul made the joke that it was naan-vegan which was quite clever), but I still plan on potentially having a Diet Coke on Sunday. As for whether I'll indulge in other dairy products? I dunno, honestly. It's kind of unlikely. I just don't miss them THAT much (I say after just finishing my lunch and not feeling hungry...wait 'til hunger strikes again and I'll be scaling a mountain of cheese). And with those new cookies, I'm kind of set for the time being. But Diet Coke...I miss you.
On a different note entirely unrelated to veganism, today I went back to the CA DMV for the 2nd time to try to register the Thundercat here. I offer you a piece of advice: if you ever move to California, either keep your plates registered in your state of previous residence for as long as possible, or buy a new car here. And if you choose option #1, be very careful to never get pulled over (or if you do get pulled over, be prepared to lie about what you're doing in CA and how long you're staying).
There are a number of things you have to do when you move across the country. But by far - registering my car in the state of California is the hardest of all those things. I have still not been successful.
Luckily, Jeremy has volunteered to complete the process for me next week. But seriously. California is on thin ice.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
day three-gan.
Currently blogging off my Blackberry while waiting for my car to get inspected so can go back to the CA DMV tomorrow and hopefully get CA plates successfully this time (I already have the license).
Anyway, "15 minute Smog Check" is not living up to its name so far (I ended up waiting about 1.5 hrs). So on to being vegan. Its not easy. Yesterday blew. I was hungry and headachey all day and had cravings way worse than the first couple of days.
Breakfast: juice...cucumbers, carrots, oranges, ginger root, celery and spirulina powder stirred in.
Lunch: baked sweet potato with cinnamon and vegan chili from a local restaurant called the green spot. Not awesome but not awful either.
Snack: got super hungry at work towards the end of the day. As you can imagine, the vending vegan options at work are limited. I was tempted to go with oreos (yes, they're vegan) but ended up going with peanut butter granola bars instead.
Snack 2: got home, ate about 1/2 c of corn chex cereal and almond milk. The almond milk was weird - my first time trying it - but again, not awful.
Dinner: quinoa, 1/2 of a fresh avocado, roasted brussel sprouts, and sea salt
Dessert: I still wasn't satisfied after dinner...so I ate a piece of California style sprouted grain bread with earth balance soy buttery spread and black raspberry jam.
So yeah. This morning (day 4) I didn't want juice, so I ate a banana and ran out the door, which I now regret as I've been waiting at this car service place for over an hour and its taking up my lunch hour. Sigh.
**UPDATE**:
After the 15 minute smog check place actually took 90 minutes, I ran over to a local Indian place to get takeout for lunch. I asked what they had that was dairy-free, and the guy behind the counter was super helpful and answered my questions. The good news is that the chicpeas, lentils, and rice I got were delicious. The bad news is that the naan I got was also delicious - and, as I found out after wolfing it down - not vegan. I didn't think about it because I figured most breads are made with yeast, water, and flour, but I kept chewing on the bread and thinking about how delicious it was and how I was going to eat naan all the time while vegan, and finally I was like "I should check and see how you make naan just in case." And I saw that most of the recipes online used dairy. So finally, I called the restaurant and asked if their naan had dairy and they confirmed that it's made with milk.
I feel sad. I know I'd only been going for a few days, so it's not like I broke some year long streak or something, but I guess if I was going to break vegan, I would have liked for it to be on my own terms rather than by accident. I wouldn't have broken vegan for the naan if I had known it had dairy in it. But that said, it also highlighted an important lesson of sorts, which is that if you're going to take on a diet like veganism, it's important to not be too shy to ask questions about what goes into your food. Which I guess is an overarching lesson for everyone, that it's better for all of us if we know what goes into our food.
I was talking to Kelly yesterday about how funny it is that Oreos are vegan and she was like "Yeah, of course they're vegan...they aren't made with real food. It's like eating your sofa." Which is so sad when you think about it. So much of what we eat is not real food. Anyway. Just food for thought (pun intended).
Oh, and as for an update on how I'm feeling overall: I do feel better. I just feel lighter. Literally and figuratively - I've lost 6 lbs since Sunday (which I know seems like a lot, but I think a lot of it was water weight rather than "actual" weight). But again, I guess I shouldn't really be keeping track of that considering that I am not doing this to lose weight, but rather just to feel healthier overall.
Tonight Jerms and I are going over to our neighbors Brian and Kathy's house for dinner. They're making lamb. I am telling them that I've given up meat for Lent (not such a stretch) and so I won't be eating the lamb, but Jeremy is going to do it "so as to not be rude" aka "because he wants to eat meat."
So, lesson of the day: Being vegan is hard enough when you're just going about your normal life - but what if I were traveling? Whew. I can't imagine.
Anyway, "15 minute Smog Check" is not living up to its name so far (I ended up waiting about 1.5 hrs). So on to being vegan. Its not easy. Yesterday blew. I was hungry and headachey all day and had cravings way worse than the first couple of days.
Breakfast: juice...cucumbers, carrots, oranges, ginger root, celery and spirulina powder stirred in.
Lunch: baked sweet potato with cinnamon and vegan chili from a local restaurant called the green spot. Not awesome but not awful either.
Snack: got super hungry at work towards the end of the day. As you can imagine, the vending vegan options at work are limited. I was tempted to go with oreos (yes, they're vegan) but ended up going with peanut butter granola bars instead.
Snack 2: got home, ate about 1/2 c of corn chex cereal and almond milk. The almond milk was weird - my first time trying it - but again, not awful.
Dinner: quinoa, 1/2 of a fresh avocado, roasted brussel sprouts, and sea salt
Dessert: I still wasn't satisfied after dinner...so I ate a piece of California style sprouted grain bread with earth balance soy buttery spread and black raspberry jam.
So yeah. This morning (day 4) I didn't want juice, so I ate a banana and ran out the door, which I now regret as I've been waiting at this car service place for over an hour and its taking up my lunch hour. Sigh.
**UPDATE**:
After the 15 minute smog check place actually took 90 minutes, I ran over to a local Indian place to get takeout for lunch. I asked what they had that was dairy-free, and the guy behind the counter was super helpful and answered my questions. The good news is that the chicpeas, lentils, and rice I got were delicious. The bad news is that the naan I got was also delicious - and, as I found out after wolfing it down - not vegan. I didn't think about it because I figured most breads are made with yeast, water, and flour, but I kept chewing on the bread and thinking about how delicious it was and how I was going to eat naan all the time while vegan, and finally I was like "I should check and see how you make naan just in case." And I saw that most of the recipes online used dairy. So finally, I called the restaurant and asked if their naan had dairy and they confirmed that it's made with milk.
I feel sad. I know I'd only been going for a few days, so it's not like I broke some year long streak or something, but I guess if I was going to break vegan, I would have liked for it to be on my own terms rather than by accident. I wouldn't have broken vegan for the naan if I had known it had dairy in it. But that said, it also highlighted an important lesson of sorts, which is that if you're going to take on a diet like veganism, it's important to not be too shy to ask questions about what goes into your food. Which I guess is an overarching lesson for everyone, that it's better for all of us if we know what goes into our food.
I was talking to Kelly yesterday about how funny it is that Oreos are vegan and she was like "Yeah, of course they're vegan...they aren't made with real food. It's like eating your sofa." Which is so sad when you think about it. So much of what we eat is not real food. Anyway. Just food for thought (pun intended).
Oh, and as for an update on how I'm feeling overall: I do feel better. I just feel lighter. Literally and figuratively - I've lost 6 lbs since Sunday (which I know seems like a lot, but I think a lot of it was water weight rather than "actual" weight). But again, I guess I shouldn't really be keeping track of that considering that I am not doing this to lose weight, but rather just to feel healthier overall.
Tonight Jerms and I are going over to our neighbors Brian and Kathy's house for dinner. They're making lamb. I am telling them that I've given up meat for Lent (not such a stretch) and so I won't be eating the lamb, but Jeremy is going to do it "so as to not be rude" aka "because he wants to eat meat."
So, lesson of the day: Being vegan is hard enough when you're just going about your normal life - but what if I were traveling? Whew. I can't imagine.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
veganism day 2
breakfast: juice made of 2 oranges...a bunch...head?...of celery...3 or 4 cucumbers...ummmm...about a 1" piece of fresh ginger...and a tsp of spirulina powder. There may have been more ingredients but if there were, I've forgotten them. I did specifically look at the like, 5 lbs of organic carrots I bought yesterday and then decide I was too lazy to open the bag and juice them...so I know there weren't any carrots in there. So yeah. That was my breakfast. The spirulina powder was hard to dissolve in the liquid. And it didn't taste anything like you'd expect. It just tasted savory.
lunch: same as yesterday...spinach salad with fresh berries, candied walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
dinner: well, first, I came home from work and wolfed down like an entire cup of mixed nuts. That was probably not the best choice I've ever made. Then for dinner, Jeremy made brown rice pasta with grain/tofu sausage and marinara sauce. The pasta was definitely strange. I mean, compared to "regular" pasta. The texture was different as well as the taste. And my favorite marinara sauce is made with butter, so that's out the window.
I've been reading a book all about a couple of sisters who start their own chocolate shop and now I want to eat an entire chocolate shop.
In terms of how I feel...I'm tired tonight. I've had kind of weird headachey pains all day but haven't taken any Advil because it's all the way over there and I'm lazy. But I didn't feel tired during the day at all the way that I have in past weeks. I feel much more alert. Soooooo we'll see how this continues.
Jeremy says: "Still vegan."
The pasta cranked his blood sugar way up after dinner, but it was pretty consistent throughout the day otherwise. He had a smoothie for breakfast (which he says tasted good) and had a quinoa bowl for lunch. He says he feels agitated. He also gave up alcohol, which I guess I technically did too, but considering that I don't drink anyway, it doesn't really make any difference to me.
Today we learned the awesome news of my college roommate Austin's pregnancy! "Peanut" is due in September. Yay for Austin, Nick, and their puppy Cooper :)
lunch: same as yesterday...spinach salad with fresh berries, candied walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
dinner: well, first, I came home from work and wolfed down like an entire cup of mixed nuts. That was probably not the best choice I've ever made. Then for dinner, Jeremy made brown rice pasta with grain/tofu sausage and marinara sauce. The pasta was definitely strange. I mean, compared to "regular" pasta. The texture was different as well as the taste. And my favorite marinara sauce is made with butter, so that's out the window.
I've been reading a book all about a couple of sisters who start their own chocolate shop and now I want to eat an entire chocolate shop.
In terms of how I feel...I'm tired tonight. I've had kind of weird headachey pains all day but haven't taken any Advil because it's all the way over there and I'm lazy. But I didn't feel tired during the day at all the way that I have in past weeks. I feel much more alert. Soooooo we'll see how this continues.
Jeremy says: "Still vegan."
The pasta cranked his blood sugar way up after dinner, but it was pretty consistent throughout the day otherwise. He had a smoothie for breakfast (which he says tasted good) and had a quinoa bowl for lunch. He says he feels agitated. He also gave up alcohol, which I guess I technically did too, but considering that I don't drink anyway, it doesn't really make any difference to me.
Today we learned the awesome news of my college roommate Austin's pregnancy! "Peanut" is due in September. Yay for Austin, Nick, and their puppy Cooper :)
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
So I'm a vegan. For now.
Yeah I haven't updated this blog in a long time. Whoops etc. I have something to say now, so hi.
I have been reading a lot of books regarding veganism, juicing, detox diets, etc...as well as watching documentaries on Netflix. Basically the idea of the corporatization of the American food industry and the effect that the American food lobby has had on the standard American diet. It opened up my eyes quite a bit. So I'm going to try veganism for a while.
Jeremy is trying it with me, which is awesome considering that watching him eat a cheeseburger for dinner while I'm eating veggies could potentially be catastrophic for my willpower. Also, we think it'll really help his blood sugar levels.
I've never been a huge meat eater in the first place. I mostly order it when we're out to eat because I don't particularly enjoy preparing raw meat personally. So I've always been teetering on the edge of vegetarianism, but sort of by accident. So now, I'm taking it a step further and committing to it with intention. We'll see how it goes.
I've been juicing for a while now - buying the prepared juices at Whole Foods (100% veggie juices, mostly green veggies) before our stuff arrived out here and I got my hands on our juicer again. Since then, I've been juicing in the mornings for breakfast...some combination of the below:
cucumbers
bell peppers
celery
oranges
limes
fresh ginger
carrots
It hasn't tasted bad at all so far. I honestly enjoy it. And then I take the pulp from the juicer and dump it in the garden in the backyard. Apparently the soil loves it. When you take your first sip of green juice, you think it tastes like grass (and it does). But then after a couple of weeks, you're really looking forward to it. It's quite interesting how adaptable your taste buds are. And I think my body was sort of like, I can do something with this. Keep drinking it.
If you're interested, I'll talk to anyone who will listen to me about it. The books I've read are:
Eat to Run by Scott Jurek (a world class ultramarathoner and vegan)
Born to Run by Christopher Mcdougall
Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr (the idea of using diet to lower your chances of heart disease and cancer...draws a lot on The China Study, which is one of the most referenced nutritional studies ever performed, basically clearly showing the link between consumption of animal protein and cancer prevalence)
Juicing, Fasting, and Detoxing for Life by Cherie Calbom
The Juicing Bible by Pat Crocker
The Big Book of Juices by Natalie Savona
The documentaries I've watched:
SuperSize Me (who hasn't?)
Food Inc (closed my eyes for 90% of it)
Vegucated (same as above)
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (very interesting, mostly about juicing)
There's another called Forks Over Knives or Forks Not Knives or something that I want to watch as well. Haven't gotten around to it yet though.
So anyway, yeah, today was day 1 of veganism. I juiced a bunch of veggies for breakfast, then had a spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and candied walnuts for lunch, and 2 vegan veggie burger patties with tofu mozzarella (weird) and sliced avocado for dinner. Dessert was a frozen banana mashed up with chunky peanut butter and cocoa powder - which was actually REALLY GOOD. I didn't think it would be, but it was. Even if you have no interest in veganism - you should try that just for kicks. It's really good.
Tomorrow I'll try spirulina (algae) in my juice for the first time. It's supposed to be a superfood. We also bought raw bee pollen at Whole Foods tonight, along with two different kinds of tofu/grain sausages, almond milk, and almond yogurt.
So yeah. I'm not sure how long this is going to last. But we'll see. It'll be interesting, at least.
And yeah, you might as well say it now. She moved to California, and now she's a vegan.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Oh and I've been off Diet Coke/caffeine for the past two-ish weeks. I had one yesterday at brunch because I was just REALLY craving it and I figured why not. But trying to cut it out generally.
But don't worry - I'm not going to be a preachy vegan. And I'm not going to say we can't go to restaurants together because they won't have vegan things there. I'm sure I'll still occasionally eat meat, and I'm SURE I'll still occasionally eat dairy (CHEESE I LOVE YOU DON'T LEAVE ME). And honestly, I'm not a die-hard egg fan, but I am a die-hard fan of things that are made with eggs (um, cake?). So again...we'll see.
I have been reading a lot of books regarding veganism, juicing, detox diets, etc...as well as watching documentaries on Netflix. Basically the idea of the corporatization of the American food industry and the effect that the American food lobby has had on the standard American diet. It opened up my eyes quite a bit. So I'm going to try veganism for a while.
Jeremy is trying it with me, which is awesome considering that watching him eat a cheeseburger for dinner while I'm eating veggies could potentially be catastrophic for my willpower. Also, we think it'll really help his blood sugar levels.
I've never been a huge meat eater in the first place. I mostly order it when we're out to eat because I don't particularly enjoy preparing raw meat personally. So I've always been teetering on the edge of vegetarianism, but sort of by accident. So now, I'm taking it a step further and committing to it with intention. We'll see how it goes.
I've been juicing for a while now - buying the prepared juices at Whole Foods (100% veggie juices, mostly green veggies) before our stuff arrived out here and I got my hands on our juicer again. Since then, I've been juicing in the mornings for breakfast...some combination of the below:
cucumbers
bell peppers
celery
oranges
limes
fresh ginger
carrots
It hasn't tasted bad at all so far. I honestly enjoy it. And then I take the pulp from the juicer and dump it in the garden in the backyard. Apparently the soil loves it. When you take your first sip of green juice, you think it tastes like grass (and it does). But then after a couple of weeks, you're really looking forward to it. It's quite interesting how adaptable your taste buds are. And I think my body was sort of like, I can do something with this. Keep drinking it.
If you're interested, I'll talk to anyone who will listen to me about it. The books I've read are:
Eat to Run by Scott Jurek (a world class ultramarathoner and vegan)
Born to Run by Christopher Mcdougall
Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr (the idea of using diet to lower your chances of heart disease and cancer...draws a lot on The China Study, which is one of the most referenced nutritional studies ever performed, basically clearly showing the link between consumption of animal protein and cancer prevalence)
Juicing, Fasting, and Detoxing for Life by Cherie Calbom
The Juicing Bible by Pat Crocker
The Big Book of Juices by Natalie Savona
The documentaries I've watched:
SuperSize Me (who hasn't?)
Food Inc (closed my eyes for 90% of it)
Vegucated (same as above)
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (very interesting, mostly about juicing)
There's another called Forks Over Knives or Forks Not Knives or something that I want to watch as well. Haven't gotten around to it yet though.
So anyway, yeah, today was day 1 of veganism. I juiced a bunch of veggies for breakfast, then had a spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and candied walnuts for lunch, and 2 vegan veggie burger patties with tofu mozzarella (weird) and sliced avocado for dinner. Dessert was a frozen banana mashed up with chunky peanut butter and cocoa powder - which was actually REALLY GOOD. I didn't think it would be, but it was. Even if you have no interest in veganism - you should try that just for kicks. It's really good.
Tomorrow I'll try spirulina (algae) in my juice for the first time. It's supposed to be a superfood. We also bought raw bee pollen at Whole Foods tonight, along with two different kinds of tofu/grain sausages, almond milk, and almond yogurt.
So yeah. I'm not sure how long this is going to last. But we'll see. It'll be interesting, at least.
And yeah, you might as well say it now. She moved to California, and now she's a vegan.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Oh and I've been off Diet Coke/caffeine for the past two-ish weeks. I had one yesterday at brunch because I was just REALLY craving it and I figured why not. But trying to cut it out generally.
But don't worry - I'm not going to be a preachy vegan. And I'm not going to say we can't go to restaurants together because they won't have vegan things there. I'm sure I'll still occasionally eat meat, and I'm SURE I'll still occasionally eat dairy (CHEESE I LOVE YOU DON'T LEAVE ME). And honestly, I'm not a die-hard egg fan, but I am a die-hard fan of things that are made with eggs (um, cake?). So again...we'll see.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Downton Abbey: UPDATED.
I just started watching it 2 nights ago. So naturally I have watched 8 episodes so far and will probably be caught up to the end of season 2 before the end of the week. So take all of the below with a grain of salt, understanding that I have not seen the rest of season 2 yet and I'm sure these opinions will change before the end of season 2. Finished season 2 on tuesday evening.
my thoughts so far:
1) i hate o'brien. i hate her and her scheming ways. She didn't really redeem herself. Almost...but not fully.
2) i hate mary. she's a jerk to edith and matthew. Still a jerk, but now her storyline makes me happy, so less of a jerk.
3) edith is annoying, but she's totally got middle child syndrome and can't be expected to not be annoying to mary. Edith is meh.
4) sybil is alright. she looks like a brunette scarlet johannsen (sp?). I like her storyline and want her, her bub, and the chauffeur to come back to Downton.
5) matthew is awesome (hence why mary is a jerk) even more awesome now.
6) Mr Bates, stop being so damn noble. It's annoying after a while. SAD. Not as sad as it almost was, but still sad. Do you think he did it? Or was that her last revenge? I honestly kind of think he did it. But if he did, that was a really stupid move.
7) Whatserface who loves Mr Bates, you're great and he's dumb. Anna - you're still great.
8) Daisy...you're annoying too. Awwww. Daisy. William. I like Daisy now.
9) William you deserve better than Daisy. :( :(
10) Thomas you're a jerk too. Still a jerk. Worse jerk.
11) Golden lab, you're awesome. Isis. Love you. Way to get yourself saved.
OK I think those are all my opinions so far. Does anyone want to talk to me about it? Obviously my opinions are very profound and thoughtful.
PS I was just talking to Paul about my opinions on the show and I said "Mary's a jerk face" and he goes "Old young or ugly?" and I go "What the what?" and he goes "Which sister?"
And that's why I'm friends with Paul.
Thanks to everyone who told me to watch it.
my thoughts so far:
1) i hate o'brien. i hate her and her scheming ways. She didn't really redeem herself. Almost...but not fully.
2) i hate mary. she's a jerk to edith and matthew. Still a jerk, but now her storyline makes me happy, so less of a jerk.
3) edith is annoying, but she's totally got middle child syndrome and can't be expected to not be annoying to mary. Edith is meh.
4) sybil is alright. she looks like a brunette scarlet johannsen (sp?). I like her storyline and want her, her bub, and the chauffeur to come back to Downton.
5) matthew is awesome (hence why mary is a jerk) even more awesome now.
6) Mr Bates, stop being so damn noble. It's annoying after a while. SAD. Not as sad as it almost was, but still sad. Do you think he did it? Or was that her last revenge? I honestly kind of think he did it. But if he did, that was a really stupid move.
7) Whatserface who loves Mr Bates, you're great and he's dumb. Anna - you're still great.
8) Daisy...you're annoying too. Awwww. Daisy. William. I like Daisy now.
9) William you deserve better than Daisy. :( :(
10) Thomas you're a jerk too. Still a jerk. Worse jerk.
11) Golden lab, you're awesome. Isis. Love you. Way to get yourself saved.
OK I think those are all my opinions so far. Does anyone want to talk to me about it? Obviously my opinions are very profound and thoughtful.
PS I was just talking to Paul about my opinions on the show and I said "Mary's a jerk face" and he goes "Old young or ugly?" and I go "What the what?" and he goes "Which sister?"
And that's why I'm friends with Paul.
Thanks to everyone who told me to watch it.
Thursday, September 06, 2012
Mah na mah na.
Oh hey.
Life over the past few weeks:
Friday 8/24 - woke up at 4:30 am. flew to San Francisco (BWI-SFO). Drove to Berkeley. Baked 14 layers of cake. Attended a rehearsal dinner.
Saturday 8/25 - woke up at 7:00 am (Pacific time, nice). Leveled, stacked, frosted said 14 layers of cake for Kelly and Ryan's wedding. Delivered cakes to caterer. Checked into hotel for wedding. Attended wedding (beautiful). Received many drunken compliments on cake.
Sunday 8/26 - woke up at 7:00 am (again, Pacific time, nice). Battled hangover. Spent entire joyous day with Molly Laufer playing in San Francisco and Palo Alto. So nice. Seriously one of the best days of my life. Love her.
Monday 8/27 - woke up at 4:30 am. Hopped hotel shuttle to airport. Barely made transcontinental flight. SFO-PHL. PHL-BWI delayed. Finally made it home in the evening.
Tuesday 8/28-Thursday 8/30 -- slept in. ran. read. ate food. played with ronin. love.
Friday 8/31 - Drove to McLean. Lunch with mom. DCA-MSP. Bar night with friends after Grant & Claire's rehearsal dinner. Love seeing friends from college.
Saturday 9/1 - Ran 5 miles with Molly Laufer in the morning. SO spoiled getting to see her so much lately. I still suck at running. Breakfast with Molly & Dan. Entire day with Molly Laufer again. Got to see Mall of America. Attended Claire & Grant's beautiful wedding and reconvened the Committee for Bad Decisions with Foley & Will. Never realize how much I miss Foley until I see him again. Danced. Kept the bar open.
Sunday 9/2 - Breakfast with Will & Foley, MSP-DCA, picked up the pup in McLean and drove back to Baltimore.
Books I've read lately that you should read: Born to Run, Eat to Run, Gone Girl, Dark Places, War Brides.
Coming up next:
Visit to Charlottesville 9/14-9/16. So excited.
Hezz's wedding on 9/29. Cannot. Wait.
Pictures of all the above can be found on Instagram :-)
Life over the past few weeks:
Friday 8/24 - woke up at 4:30 am. flew to San Francisco (BWI-SFO). Drove to Berkeley. Baked 14 layers of cake. Attended a rehearsal dinner.
Saturday 8/25 - woke up at 7:00 am (Pacific time, nice). Leveled, stacked, frosted said 14 layers of cake for Kelly and Ryan's wedding. Delivered cakes to caterer. Checked into hotel for wedding. Attended wedding (beautiful). Received many drunken compliments on cake.
Sunday 8/26 - woke up at 7:00 am (again, Pacific time, nice). Battled hangover. Spent entire joyous day with Molly Laufer playing in San Francisco and Palo Alto. So nice. Seriously one of the best days of my life. Love her.
Monday 8/27 - woke up at 4:30 am. Hopped hotel shuttle to airport. Barely made transcontinental flight. SFO-PHL. PHL-BWI delayed. Finally made it home in the evening.
Tuesday 8/28-Thursday 8/30 -- slept in. ran. read. ate food. played with ronin. love.
Friday 8/31 - Drove to McLean. Lunch with mom. DCA-MSP. Bar night with friends after Grant & Claire's rehearsal dinner. Love seeing friends from college.
Saturday 9/1 - Ran 5 miles with Molly Laufer in the morning. SO spoiled getting to see her so much lately. I still suck at running. Breakfast with Molly & Dan. Entire day with Molly Laufer again. Got to see Mall of America. Attended Claire & Grant's beautiful wedding and reconvened the Committee for Bad Decisions with Foley & Will. Never realize how much I miss Foley until I see him again. Danced. Kept the bar open.
Sunday 9/2 - Breakfast with Will & Foley, MSP-DCA, picked up the pup in McLean and drove back to Baltimore.
Books I've read lately that you should read: Born to Run, Eat to Run, Gone Girl, Dark Places, War Brides.
Coming up next:
Visit to Charlottesville 9/14-9/16. So excited.
Hezz's wedding on 9/29. Cannot. Wait.
Pictures of all the above can be found on Instagram :-)
Monday, July 09, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Things you should eat in Baltimore
So today for lunch I was craving a specific black bean burger from Little Havana's in Baltimore, and I thought to myself, maybe I should make a list of the places I enjoy eating in Baltimore so that the next time people ask where they should eat while in town I can direct them to this post.
Oh, also, please note that this list does not include anything made with crabs. Sorry, I just don't like them that much. So if you're looking for that kind of a list of Baltimore foods, check basically ANYWHERE ELSE.
So here goes.
Federal Hill area (downtown, close to the Harbor, south of the heart of the city)
Black Bean Burger from Little Havana - kind of like a falafel patty (because it appears to be fried so it has a nice crunch to it) except made with black beans. Slightly spicy. Served with sweet potato fries and chipotle mayo. Delish.
Classic cheesesteak from MaGerks on Cross Street - tastes like a White Castle slider. What more could you want?
Tater tot, brie and bacon appetizer from Regi's on Light Street - do I really need to be more descriptive?
Chips & guacamole appetizer from Miguel's - this is really more in the Locust Point area. The chips are made from flour tortillas instead of corn and deep fried and this makes them AMAZING. Get the guac with the garlic and tomatoes. Molly and Dan Laufer approve, so that means that it's legit amazing. They know their food.
Drunken noodles from Thai Arroy on Light Street - so spicy and delicious. The first few bites before the spice burns your taste buds off are heavenly. I've never had better drunken noodles. Also, I feel that their crappy website further legitimizes how delicious their food is...because they're making good food, not good websites.
There USED TO BE an amazing place called Rub at the intersection of Light and Wells but it went under because about 5 people knew about it, but strangely, this BBQ place served the most amazing chicken enchiladas I've ever had. Now it's some dumb pizza place, which is a Fail.
OK that's all I have time for right now. Stay tuned for future posts indicating where you should eat in Fells Point/Harbor East and the amorphous "north of the city" area.
Oh, also, please note that this list does not include anything made with crabs. Sorry, I just don't like them that much. So if you're looking for that kind of a list of Baltimore foods, check basically ANYWHERE ELSE.
So here goes.
Federal Hill area (downtown, close to the Harbor, south of the heart of the city)
Black Bean Burger from Little Havana - kind of like a falafel patty (because it appears to be fried so it has a nice crunch to it) except made with black beans. Slightly spicy. Served with sweet potato fries and chipotle mayo. Delish.
Classic cheesesteak from MaGerks on Cross Street - tastes like a White Castle slider. What more could you want?
Tater tot, brie and bacon appetizer from Regi's on Light Street - do I really need to be more descriptive?
Chips & guacamole appetizer from Miguel's - this is really more in the Locust Point area. The chips are made from flour tortillas instead of corn and deep fried and this makes them AMAZING. Get the guac with the garlic and tomatoes. Molly and Dan Laufer approve, so that means that it's legit amazing. They know their food.
Drunken noodles from Thai Arroy on Light Street - so spicy and delicious. The first few bites before the spice burns your taste buds off are heavenly. I've never had better drunken noodles. Also, I feel that their crappy website further legitimizes how delicious their food is...because they're making good food, not good websites.
There USED TO BE an amazing place called Rub at the intersection of Light and Wells but it went under because about 5 people knew about it, but strangely, this BBQ place served the most amazing chicken enchiladas I've ever had. Now it's some dumb pizza place, which is a Fail.
OK that's all I have time for right now. Stay tuned for future posts indicating where you should eat in Fells Point/Harbor East and the amorphous "north of the city" area.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
W-eyes up
I normally pay $25+ for a tube of mascara. In the past I've been a big fan of Diorshow and L'ancome Hypnose Drama mascaras. They're both good, but Diorshow is better. I still maintain that Diorshow is worth the price. L'ancome Hypnose Drama is not.
You know what mascara is worth more than I paid for it? Maybelline Illegal Lengths fiber extensions mascara. It was less than $7 at Target. It's amazing. I'm also a huge fan of the classic Maybelline Great Lash mascara.
So yeah. Ok bye.
You know what mascara is worth more than I paid for it? Maybelline Illegal Lengths fiber extensions mascara. It was less than $7 at Target. It's amazing. I'm also a huge fan of the classic Maybelline Great Lash mascara.
So yeah. Ok bye.
Monday, April 30, 2012
But this chocolate cake is juuuuuust right.
So I can't quite say I'm the Goldilocks of chocolate cake because I only made two this weekend instead of the three that Goldilocks status would require, but I feel so much better after making the 2nd cake that I want to compare myself to Goldilocks.
This post has already taken a weird turn. Anyway. I woke up yesterday determined to practice buttercream roses (I learned how to make them from a YouTube tutorial that I found on Pinterest, oh the wonders of technology) and I figured well, if I'm going to defrost the buttercream I may as well make a cake to frost with it. I tried a different cake recipe (from this cookbook) - I used their German chocolate cake recipe without the part that makes it German (the frosting, which, by the way, is a misnomer because it's not actually from Germany, it was created by the German chocolate company to sell more cakes). But I digress. I didn't especially like this recipe but it may be my own fault - I divided a 9" recipe in half to get a 6" recipe, and that results in more volume than a 6" cake pan is designed to handle, which means that the cake itself takes longer than usual to set up in the center because the cake pan is not conducting heat as effectively as it should - so basically, by the time the inside of the cake is cooked, the outside of the cake is overcooked. Maybe I should have reduced the temperature of the oven and done it low and slow or something. Anyway. I digress again.
The batter was delicious for this cake as well - doesn't it look yummy?
This post has already taken a weird turn. Anyway. I woke up yesterday determined to practice buttercream roses (I learned how to make them from a YouTube tutorial that I found on Pinterest, oh the wonders of technology) and I figured well, if I'm going to defrost the buttercream I may as well make a cake to frost with it. I tried a different cake recipe (from this cookbook) - I used their German chocolate cake recipe without the part that makes it German (the frosting, which, by the way, is a misnomer because it's not actually from Germany, it was created by the German chocolate company to sell more cakes). But I digress. I didn't especially like this recipe but it may be my own fault - I divided a 9" recipe in half to get a 6" recipe, and that results in more volume than a 6" cake pan is designed to handle, which means that the cake itself takes longer than usual to set up in the center because the cake pan is not conducting heat as effectively as it should - so basically, by the time the inside of the cake is cooked, the outside of the cake is overcooked. Maybe I should have reduced the temperature of the oven and done it low and slow or something. Anyway. I digress again.
The batter was delicious for this cake as well - doesn't it look yummy?
Jeremy asked me ten times this weekend if I was baking brownies even though I said probably twelve times that I was making chocolate cakes. But I guess that's what I'm trying to find - a chocolate cake that tastes as good as brownies. I haven't found it yet. But on a positive note, our house smelled like brownies/chocolate/chocolate cake all weekend. Yum!
I did the usual - cooled the cakes after they were baked, leveled them, torted them, filled them with raspberry jam (I just typed raspberry ham which would be very different from jam), put on a crumb coat, and put it in the fridge to chill. While that was going on, I started practicing my buttercream roses. And I am now in love with buttercream roses. I will make them and put them on anything. My clothes, my dinner, whatever, I don't care. I'll make them out of mashed potatoes if I have to. They are just SO fun to make - and SO SO SO easy. Trust me - if you can handle a piping bag, you can do this.
After the cake had chilled, I put the roses in the fridge to chill and then started working on icing the cake. I used the petal tip to create what I call the cummerbund effect on the sides of the cake - vertical lines standing next to each other all around the cake. I guess a cummerbund would really be horizontal lines, but this is my blog so get off me.
After the cummerbund was finished I continued using a petal tip to pipe a layer of icing in concentric circles on the top of the cake, then I switched out to the shell tip to create a shell border around the top and bottom of the cake. Finally, I placed the chilled roses on top of the cake (they were so easy to handle once they were cold because they were nice and firm). This is the finished product:
And I've gotta say I might be more proud of this one than I was of the shower cake. I just LOVE the buttercream roses. I just wish I liked to eat buttercream more than I actually do.
So I still need to learn more buttercream piping techniques but I'm still having fun learning what I'm learning right now. The funniest part is that both Kelly and Jared/Heather want really simple cakes - nothing too fussy/fancy with lots of piping. So this is really just for my own edification. But that's ok with me because I'm having fun. :)
Saturday, April 28, 2012
I want to punt this chocolate cake.
So today I started trying out chocolate cake recipes for Jared and Heather's wedding. The only thing that is good about this cake is that I discovered a frosting recipe that I will not be using. Ever again. Ever.
I used the chocolate cake and chocolate cream cheese frosting recipes from the Georgetown Cupcake Cupcake Diaries cookbook. Chocolate cream cheese frosting just sounded SO GOOD to me and I know it's good when I get it at Georgetown Cupcakes but this is the most difficult icing I've ever worked with. It is hard and dry and refuses to be piped. Absolutely refuses. I was going to work on frosting roses today but that idea went straight out the window as soon as I felt this frosting. I had to get out the widest tips I had to pipe even a minimal amount of this icing.
But let's start at the beginning.
I baked two 6" layers of chocolate cake and it was from legit the most delicious cake batter I have ever tasted. I haven't tasted the actual baked/iced cake yet but I hope it lives up to how it tasted in batter form. So anyway, I baked off the two layers:
They smelled delicious so I hope they taste just the same.
Then while the layers cooled I made the frosting. The evil, evil frosting (it looks like chicken below, hahahahahaha):
I used the chocolate cake and chocolate cream cheese frosting recipes from the Georgetown Cupcake Cupcake Diaries cookbook. Chocolate cream cheese frosting just sounded SO GOOD to me and I know it's good when I get it at Georgetown Cupcakes but this is the most difficult icing I've ever worked with. It is hard and dry and refuses to be piped. Absolutely refuses. I was going to work on frosting roses today but that idea went straight out the window as soon as I felt this frosting. I had to get out the widest tips I had to pipe even a minimal amount of this icing.
But let's start at the beginning.
I baked two 6" layers of chocolate cake and it was from legit the most delicious cake batter I have ever tasted. I haven't tasted the actual baked/iced cake yet but I hope it lives up to how it tasted in batter form. So anyway, I baked off the two layers:
Then while the layers cooled I made the frosting. The evil, evil frosting (it looks like chicken below, hahahahahaha):
Don't get me wrong...it tastes delicious. It tastes exactly like the filling in a Milky Way (minus the caramel). It's just SO HARD to work with. I torted the layers, filled them with raspberry jam, and attempted to dirty ice the cake...but this stupid frosting didn't want to stick to the cake. It just kept falling right off. I couldn't believe it. Finally I forced it to stick to the cake and put it in the fridge to cool.
I tried piping when I took the cake out of the fridge but the cake was NOT having it. Well, the icing wasn't. I couldn't force the frosting through the small petal tip I was trying to use to make stripes on the cake or a rose. I switched the petal tip out for a large circle tip and piped a two pearl borders and then used a closed star tip to make some stars and some attempts at rosettes which also didn't work. Finally I decided to make a monogrammed cake for Jeremy and ended up with this...his monogram plus a little heart. Not the most fantastic thing I've ever produced. I'm still mad at the icing and my hand still hurts from piping. I also couldn't get the icing on the sides of the cake to smooth out.
Oh, and can we talk about the leaning tower of cake here? I didn't do a great job of stacking this cake...
Sunday, April 15, 2012
The shower cake was a success!
So as you know I'm doing wedding cakes for two weddings, one in August and one in September, and I've been practicing. So I needed to try out my first tiered cake this weekend because I was recruited by my mom to make a "mini-wedding cake" for the bridal shower she was hosting for a friend. The bride, Carolyn, is marrying a family friend, Tommy. My family and Tommy's family have been celebrating Thanksgiving together for 20 years as of this year (which I cannot believe).
So I decided to do the almond/raspberry/white chocolate cake for the shower. I started on Friday afternoon/evening by baking, torting, dirty icing, and doweling/stacking the layers, as pictured in these photos:
So I did a 6" tier with two layers and a 9" tier with two layers. The 9" tier was baked off and then put onto a 12" decorative cake board as you can see in the above picture. The 6" tier was baked off and then put onto a 6" cake board as you can (barely) see in the picture just above the last where I'm holding the tiny 6" tier.
So I decided to do the almond/raspberry/white chocolate cake for the shower. I started on Friday afternoon/evening by baking, torting, dirty icing, and doweling/stacking the layers, as pictured in these photos:
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| Notice the strips around the larger pans - to be discussed below. |
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| Noodle I bought these lovely cooling racks with the gift certificate you sent me! |
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| 9" layer, torted, stacked, and dirty iced |
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| 6" layer, torted, stacked, and dirty iced |
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| both layers stacked and doweled |
I used "MagiCake" baking strips on the 9" layers and they really did make a difference. They're quite simple when you think about it - they're just strips of fabric that you soak in cold water and then wrap around the outside of your pan and secure with what are basically paper clips. In the oven, they keep the outside cool so that it bakes at the same rate as the inside and the layer comes out much more even on top and much more generally evenly baked. The outsides of the layers weren't as dry as they've otherwise been. I also used a simple syrup bath on each of the layers this time, just brushed on with a pastry brush after the layer was torted and stacked. That also made a huge difference in the texture and taste of the cake, and I wholly recommend it.
To stack the cake, I placed three bamboo dowels in the bottom layer before placing the 6" layer on top, then I sharpened and drove 1 bamboo dowel through the top and bottom layers (including forcing it through the cake board supporting the 6" layer). It was very sturdy as a result.
I refrigerated the cake overnight and then piped it yesterday. I used my shell tip in various ways as well as a straight tip to do the swags on the bottom layer. Please see below for the finished product:
I drove the cake down to McLean from Baltimore and then my mom put a really cute Cupid's Arrow she had made through the cake when I arrived for the shower (idea found on Pinterest). Everyone really enjoyed the cake and the taste was much better than the first time I made it, so I'm hoping it'll just continue to get better with time!
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