quick hello

its only been ages since my last post.
ill be back...eventually

for now a film photo and the promise of more :)

i just ate a whole avocado

which is a first for me.
check out thisrecipe for lemon "pudding"
its quite tasty.
i didnt have the feeling i was gonna barf if i ate another bite. SOMETIMES that happens with regular avocado, depending on how i eat it...]. i ate every bite with much satisfaction. :)

i just like putting pictures up.

on the 25th of july i made a tast vegan marble cake for my brothers bday.
behold, decked in frosting and candles:



[photo by me]

Im still not 1000X sure where I want this blog to go!!

So I give you a photo I got back from the roll of film I had developed.[above]

And a quick list of some lovely things:
1. photographs
2. mason jars
3. homemade peach cobbler that I made healthy
4. reading the bible in the morning
5. movies...well some of them.
I think im gonna watch Bolt now. See if its any good.

Ill be back tomorrow and hopefully I can make something of this blog.

im thinking im more of a lurker....
which may or may not be why i blog as much as i "should".
oh well :D

heres a photo of that bulgar pilaf i made the other day...i forgot i took a picture when i posted it!
i guess i didnt make it look very appetizing..lol



"Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death15 and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death." Hebrews 2:14-15

It seems I have to keep relearning the basic principle that Jesus died so I could be set free...and not cower through life. lol

Ok lastly, ive realized if theres gonna be any hope for this blog i need to blog MUCH more often!!!

soo....see you tomorrow perhaps? :D

food.....

today is a special and very short post.
i want to let you know about Katies giveaway of a spiralizer. [actually i dont, because i want to win it. what? who said that?] hehe
So i made her Bulgar Pilaf and it was really tasty. I had my grains/proteins and veggies all in one yummy dish.
Ive been meaning to make one of her recipes for a while now and im glad i did!

check out here blog here for vegan info and tasties.
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/

lovelies

ive been collecting pretty much any glass jar ive used for whatever.[one of those is a spaghetti jar]. ive started using them firstly to put my necklaces in! i really like the way the pearls look in them.

crafts are consuming me right now...
and anything pretty. or pretty and vintage. and handmade things!!!
so ive been trying to prettify the living space.

i painted a water color picture yesterday and worked on a chalk drawing today.

ive been making lots of like macrame bracelets since i got back from camp. one of the leaders brought a ton of hemp and string and i made like 3 bracelets there!

i plan to mod podge a vase pretty soon. i also eventually want to do some sewing and embroidery projects.

also, i want to buy everything on anthropologie? haha and ive seen so many other cute stuff in other places. heres some cute stores:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6048711
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6801310&order=§ion_id=&page=2 [theres an adorable salt and pepper shaker set here...]

i cant wait until i have a place of my own to furnish!
but heres some things ive added recently to where i live now:

heres a photo of a chalkboard my dad gave me a while back that he got from a thrift store. point is it doesnt work as a chalkboard and that really sucks cause i wanted a chalkboard so i just stuck some polaroids on it and im gonna hang it up.


heres a photo of my dying lavender plant....im trying to keep it from dying, right now its kind anot reviving or getting worse...


heres a photo of my new basil plant :)


and lastly heres a photo of a US map I got form cracker barrel a while back. i loovee the way maps look and i could stare at them for hours. i hung it above my bed :)

FOOD!!

the other day i bought a bowl of TJ's Vegan Pad Thai[it comes frozen then you microwave it][and actually my mom bought it for me..just thought id give her credit lol].
it takes about 5 minutes in the microwave.
while i waited i did squats....haha

basically it was tasty and good if you dont have much time!....or if your feeling lazy.
i was happy to see nothing weird although there is kinda a bit much sugar.
one thing i was kinda sad to see was that it had 600 calories!! 600!!! and ok....this is crazy. 118 CARBS! one serving!
my original plan was to eat half but i ate the whole thing. it certainly didnt feel like 600 calories. it was relatively low fat though i guess.

heres a photo; i dont know how to link it to make it bigger and my bros bugging me to get off so sorry!


second up we have pancakes i made this morning...actually it was more afternoony since i woke at twelve....heheh
in the spirit of Chocolate Covered Katie's Pancake bonanza i decided to venture out and make some pancakes i never had before. i had great success previously using a WW recipe i found on the 'net a while back but im not gonna link cause right now i dont know where it is!!! maybe ill show you later or something.
anyways here it is beofore i devored them:

Double Chocolate Blackberry Banana Pancakes.
i used the recipe i had[a great one nice a fluffy] but i supped one of the TBSP's of flour for some cocoa powder[you should/could probably use more] and i added a few choc chips to the 'cakes. voila double choc pancakes. then i made a sauce like substance to top it off.
to do this i used half a banana mashed, some blackberries, some molasses[maybe like a TBSP, you could probably use somehting else if you dont like molasses, but i do], and water. i nuked it [microwaved] for a bit then dumped it on the pancakes. it was good!!
im trying to cut down on added sugar[really doesnt sound like it, huh? haha] and sweets/desserts. but that doesnt include fruit!! so basically if i wanted to kick down the sugar on this i could have probably left out the molasses in the sauce[berries are wonderfully naturaly sweet&amazing] and for the actual pancakes i could probably take out the sugar[the recipes calls for 1 TBSP of brown sugar] and just made regular ones without the chocolate chips and cocoa powder i guess.

ok im almost done. as you can tell my blog is kinda a myriad of things. things i like of course[hence the title..i know, uncreative]. and since im all about organization, ive been thinking if i start blogging more ill do like speical days dedicated to certain topics. like food thursdays or something. so well see!

ok thats all or now, possibly nonexistant readers! haha ;D

camp camp camp!

in a week i leave for summer camp with my youth group!
we leave on monday and return on saturday!
its going to be held at Biola University.
ive been there before in 2007 and to the same camp but at a different location in 06.
both were wonderful experiences and are helpful in growing as a chirstian. :)
the university provides the food sooo my plan is this:
when i went before the cafeteria had many different things to choose from.
i cant remember completely but i think they had a pretty good selection of veggies in their salad bar. it was a big station for making your own sandwhiches too.
i beleive oatmeals available in the morning.
so my plan is to bring a few packages of silken tofu to eat raw with dinner perhaps, a jar of peanut butter for maybe things like oatmeal and sandwhiches, and a package of some sort of bread/wraps. im thinking it might be a good idea to also bring some type of bars or trail mix as well.
at first when i went vegan i wasnt even sure how long id do it. and i was convinced for this week of camp i wouldnt be vegan.
its amazing though how much ive realized how great it is!
when im with family and their eating their cookies and meat and cheese im glad to not be eating the same thing! haha. i know this is a good thing im doing for the enviorment and MYSELF and its lovely! it has also helped me appreciate food and desserts. im striving to be a healthy happy me!
ok thats about it.
heres a self portrait back in april in L.A.
hehe

ps i have a flickr(here) and a tumblr(here)
where i post more of my photography!

kindness and truth, kindness and mercy, love and loyalty, mercy and truth, love and faithfulness

i find translations of the bible very interesting. i love when pastors talk about the origins or verses and how it pertains to whats being said. like when the original hebrew words or greek words cant be expressed fully in english and how that effects the translation.
so i came accros this verse today in the Message and i really liked it.
then i ran upstairs to get my regular bible that had the NCV translation.

heres the message translation:
"Dont lose your grip on love and loyalty.[same as CEV]
Tie them around your neck, carve their initials on your heart.

and the NCV:
"Don’t ever forget kindness and truth. [same as ASV]
Wear them like a necklace.
Write them on your heart as if on a tablet."

the NLT:
"Never let loyalty and kindness leave you!
Tie them around your neck as a reminder.
Write them deep within your heart."

and heres the KJ version:
"Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart."

the NIV:
"Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart."

Amplified:
"Let not mercy and kindness [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] and truth [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy or falsehood] forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart."

I wonder in this particular case what made the authors of each translation choose the words they did.

either way i like them all. and i want to make a necklace with those words on it. :)
so i have love, loyalty, kindness, truth, faithfulness and mercy hanging around me wherever i am.

i also while looking for the NCV translation[not THAT popular] found this website:
http://www.youversion.com/

pretty cool!
they have a little parallel feautre too so you can view two versions at the same time! i think im gonna sign up right now....

dont ya

just love my new header :)
hehe. im happy i put the photo uup. its a crop of a photo i took a while back with my film camera.

i just took the vegnews contest poll thing and it made me realize i really need to branch out! haha
i only answered like 5 of the questions because i really couldnt answer them all. :(
well its not like im made of money and can go on huge natural food store shopping sprees and go to other towns and eat awesome food! haha
one day.....
i guess i still have a whole life time ahead of me :)

have a great night/day!

a whole cluster of things

hello to anyone reading!
i guess im just gonna talk about stuff.
i had my very first ballet recital this weekend[awww]
it went very well except for one thing!
my foot has been really hurting the last[im estimating here] few weeks. ive stoping going running/jogging because it hurt to much. i think i might have twisted/fractured/sprained it..i have no clue and dont even remember when it started hurting exactly. but anyways, while i was on stage i hurt it even more. i finished the dance and no one even noticed[so said my mom & grandma
& some stranger] which is good except that i cant fully walk on it! :(
so im going to the doctor for that on wed...maybe they can check out my knees 'cus those dont seem to always feel so great since i crashed a bike over a year and a half ago.....yeah i havent been to the doc in quite some time. if they ask about how i eat[have no clue if they will] im gonna proudly state im a healthy vegan :D

about food....
last week i made some of ppk's chai tea latte cupcakes but modified it to make it taste more ginger-y but using like ginger tea and more ginger than called for.
then for a topping i took the juice of canned pear plus a few pears plus powdered sugar to make like a glaze. i kind of pan-fried the remaining pears to decorate on top.
the verdict: it was good but i was really dissappointed sorta with the cake. i baked it for the called time and temp but it ended up more dense and mushy than i wanted. im not sur eit baking them longer would have helped, but i guess i should have tried. this was also my first time baking with soy yogurt as a binder. it seems isa does that alot? i dont know but im gonna try flax next time because so every time ive used that its worked perfectly!

and today i made mexican "gingerbread pigs".
i used the recipe above but adapted it in the way im posting below. As you can see these dont even contain ginger!! They should really be called molasses pigs. :)

Ingredients:
a little less that 3/4 cups brown sugar
2 TBSP earth balance[it calls for shortening but all we have is hydrogenated so i used EB]
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoons cinnamon [i ommited this]
3/4 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
1/2 flax "egg"
about 1/8 cup milk [i used soy]
3 cups flour*
*I used 2/3 Whole Wheat and 1/3 All purpose and while i was eating totally didnt notice! I totally forgot it was ww. So im sure you could do all whole wheat!

and i used soymilk for an "egg wash"

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together brown sugar, shortening, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla until the mixture forms a firm paste.
3. Add, mixing after each addition until blended, the molasses, egg and milk.
4. Gradually add the flour, mixing to form a dough; Roll dough out to about 1/2 inch thick; cut with a large pig-shaped cutter; Place each marranito on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. [i did have paper so i just used nonstick cooking spray]
5. Brush tops with milk.
6. Bake for 12-15 , or until desired. The original recipes calls for 15-17 minutes. I found that 15 minutes made them too hard around the edges for me, but thats MAY be because mine were smaller than the normal pig cutout[although one review said the same]. And I like mine soft! :) Although the ones that were crispier were still yummy too!


**as you can see if you look at the other recipe, i halved it. halved this made about 16 pretty big sized cookies[although STILL not as large as the mexican bakeries sell them]. i didnt shape them in pigs either, cause i dont have one of those cookie cutters! :(

So im posting this recipre because theyre real good!! Like addicting!!!
Man i loved these before going vegan and i still do now that i can have my own :)
I remember a few years ago for Christmas I asked for 10 gingerbread pigs in my stocking. LOL My mom only got me three, but i was happy :)

Well im wrapping this up because its getting long. The photo, if you didnt realize, is of the cupcakes i made. :) BTW i know i need some white bowls and plates for photos instead of these cherry ones...lol
See ya!

baking

i have a ridiculous amount of tabs open right now and im just praying the windows not gonna close on me.
..yeah thats how i do.

so member when i said i was off to bake something yummy?
i did. i made two little loaves of lemon poppyseed bread from "wednesday food blogging". it was sooo scrumdiddlyumtious. i wrapped one up from my cool gma as a thankyou gift. the original plan was to take it to her house but somehow my mom ending up bringing her to me and her friend. so i took out the very little bit we had left of the other loaf[it was mini and delicious and we gobbled it up in no time] and i gave some to my gma's friend to try. she seemed to like it alot. then i told her it was vegan...hehehe ive actually been pretty lucky with this whole vegan thing. almost everyone i know has been pretty helpful [even though every now and then my mom tries to get me to break it over something small and therefore "unimportant" haha]. anyways so my gmas friend obviously really liked it so next time i saw my gma she told me they wanted to buy some! lol
so that got me really thinking. i kinda want to start selling some baked goods locally. so now ive been dreaming up cookies and loaf breads and flavor combos like no other. its all so exciting!! all i want to do is bake. what im not looking forward to is figuring out prices. i have to calculate how much i wanna charge while making sure i break even with some profit at a resonable price. :( boriinggg. lol

oh so anyways while searching for cookie ideas i went to martha stewart's site and saw this:
http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/chocolate-faux-bois-cupcake?lnc=98d20356c0041210VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&pgType=intro&rsc=howTo_tab_intro#menu_container
that martha. shes crazy but you gotta hand it to her for stuff like that.
im not really planning on doing that soon but i think its pretty neato.

so question time!!
whats your very favorite dessert?

ps i know its cool to have photos in posts, haha, but im on my moms notebook so i nothing

yummy things

i can NOT wait for my film to get here.
im already looking at more.....black and white and polaroid film :)
ad most importantly a lense.
im so glad its summer. ive really done absolutely nothing for the last few days...

here! one of my favorite film photographers ever, and my very first inspiration!
http://www.mylalaland.com/hello/index.html

ok im going to bake osme lovely now. like a sweet quick bread :)
i just wish my lower back pain would go awayy.

oh my!

ive been "sucked in" to three different things today...
-the almond butter+banana bandwagon......it IS good
-the PPK forums. i knew they existed before but never really read them.
-ebay! seriously not good. but at the same time soo awesome. i bought a whollleee bunch of film today at a pretty decent price if i do say so myself. i also bought batteries. now i just need a lense for my ae-1 or to get my nikon n75 fixed....

heres one of my favorite-est photos ive ever taken since my blog is lookin kinda picture-lonely:

invisible children

(my photo of the event)

"On Saturday April 25th at 3:00pm to Sunday April 26th until 8:15pm I left my home to participate 30 miles away at an event called The Rescue. In roughly 100 cities across the world in 10 countries, over tens of thousands of passionate people were doing the same as I.
The event was put on by Invisible Children, an organization devoted to rescuing the thousands of children who are abducted by Joseph Kony to fight in the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda for Africa’s longest running war of 23 years. An estimated 90% of the LRA is made of abducted children who are forced to fight for Joseph Kony who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for 33 charges. 12 are crimes against humanity and 11 war crimes. These charges are for murder, enslavement, sexual enslavement, and rape, cruel treatment of civilians, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, pillaging, inducing rape, and forced enlisting of children into the rebel ranks. Tens of thousands of children from Northern Uganda every night walk for miles to populated cities to escape abduction by the LRA.
We gathered in downtown SLO and from there walked about a mile to a nearby park. On the way we walked single file all holding onto a rope. About 150 of us walked to the park where we stayed the night waiting to be “rescued” by someone who is recognized as a mogul [such as a politician or celebrity]. We wrote letters to California’s senators, stood out on the street holding signs and donated money to the organization. We were “rescued” Sunday night and afterwards some of the participants hopped on a bus and headed to Las Vegas to join their mission to be rescued.
The purpose of this event is to bring awareness and action to the situation in Nothern Uganda. By persisting to stay until being rescued we want to send a message that we will not give up until peace is restored, Joseph Kony is brought to justice, and the child soldiers are rescued."

I wrote this just a few days after i attended the event.
The organization is now [and has been] planning what they hope to be one of the biggest lobby days in American history in order to bring awareness to the issue.
In Washington D.C. it will be held on June 22 to the 23.

Please support the cause. Especially if you able to make the event.
Check out:
http://www.howitends.tv/
http://www.invisiblechildren.com

interesting thought:

"Another, less optimistic resolution of the "I was blind, now I see" fallacy: I was once blind about certain things, and could see others. Now I can see things to which I was once blind, and if I have become blind to things which once I saw, my new blindnesses hinder me from noticing." [link to author]
ive thought about this very idea. i have to say i like the way the writer states this and i agree!
the thing i wonder though is how do we stop this? how do we really "see" everything?
all i can think of is just by having a relationshop with God and trusting him. following the bible and ultimately just trying to do and think to the best of my ability what is right. like racism, i guess people thought it was the norm and ok to hate people because of race but now we look back and say "i was blind but now i see". well my solution for that would be the part in the bible where it says love your neighbor.
any thoughts?

holy yum!

'scuse the lame photoshop job, but i wanted to make the counter b&w because it blended to much originally.
well this little morsels were the result of blending some raisins, dates, almonds, coconut, molasses, agave, cinnamon, and nutmeg together.[i think that was everything] i added some ww flour to it in the end though because i was hoping to increase the volume[aka have more to eat :D] hehehe

well ive been meaning to add non food related stuff to the blog but have been soo lazy to even blog at all.

this is all for now actually :)

name change

yeah, thought the other one was lammee
also this gives me reason to talk about other stuff than food.
i really suck at blogging.
im more of a lurker i suppose.
haha

i really wanna lose a few pounds and get more toned.
so im gonna try to document what i eat more and exercise everyday.

so today i woke up very late so i guess i ate less than normal, but this is what i had:

i took some of this juice, then added to it some blueberries, a frozen banana, a good amount of redleaf lettuce, and some strawberries.
as a snack i had some tj's flax tortilla chips[or w/e] and salsa
3 dates
for dinner i had a wrap. i was feeling uncreative and i didnt know what to do. i finished up the lettuce, celery, bell pepper and hummus plus 1/2 avocado. i added some mustard and s&p on a TJ whole wheat wrap. it was ok, not as good as yesterday, which had tomato, and no avocado and no lettuce[but i think i put collard greens in]. wierd how those differences changed it for me.
i did about 3 miles off and on running/walking because my foot hurt!!! im not sure, but im afraid i dont have correct form. i dont think i land evenly on my feet.
anyways the very last thing i had was a small[!!] peice of this tart i made:

i made it because we had alot of strawberries that were going bad really fast. i mean super fast. we bought them at costco but they were already kinda icky there but they were only 2.50!!! for alot. it sucks that strawberries have to be part of the dirty dozen though because they are sooo expensive for organic. :(

ok thats it for now

soy.....*sigh*

well well.
ive been thinking about soy alot lately.
organic, GM, processed, etc, etc
i think i wanna start cutting sown on it which really shouldnt be to hard except for.....
soy milk.
:(
i like the stuff, i really do.

while soy when you look at the nutrition lable seems very "healthy" theres so much talk going around about the negatives aspects of it.
i was really hoping if it was organic, then the problems would disappear but that doesnt seem to be the case. lol [though you really should aim for that es[ecially in soy]
i found this to be kinda interesting and i read like two other articles on the same topic tonight.

im happy that tofukey's in the 4 bean catagory cause ijust bought some for calzones im making tomorrow.

anyways, im gonna try and limit my soy intake and hopefully wean myself off soymilk. im not sur eitll be entirely possible though because i tried some vanilla almond milk and i didnt really like it :( it was almost gag worthy to me....and i had high hopes for it. maybe ill like plain better? [i like vanilla soymilk so i thought...]

also ive been trying to eat more leafy greens. and i really wanna eat more RAW!
but this'll all take time. i dont want to get super burnedout and discouraged.

oh and i didnt take any photos but, today i made the Mediterean Olive bread from my "Joy of Vegan Baking" and i made some roasted rosemary potatoes to go with. also beforehand i had a salad of baby spinich, bell pepper, tomato, carrot, and a spash of balsamic vineger. im really uncreative with salads. its sad.
that reminds me, yesterday for dinner i made this taco salad minus the nacho sauce and i just used red leaf lettuce.

ok thats all!
gnight!

some cool stuff

1. my mom has "fasted" coffee for almost 4 days now. im really proud of her.
but the main reason im happy is cause she bought like 4 different chai teas on the weekend. haha.....chai is my favy :)

2. i got a baking cookbook!!!!!
ive been surviving off recipes from the web, mostly all yall other bloggers but my brother and his gf bought me The Joy Of Vegan Baking! so i mean i cant live off baked goods[haha] but its nice to have a whole book full of legit recipes and cool facts about veganism and baking in general! now my top cookbook i really want right now is probably veganomicon.

ive been somewhat eager to try out happyherbivores Veggie Biscuit Pot Pie recipe for a while now and tonight i did.
the gravy/sauce was pretty bland so i just proceded to throw in tons of seasonings like nutritional yeast, garlic salt, seasoning salt, and i accidently threw in too much cumin and cayenne[my family are wussies...haha jk my original intention was not to make it spicy at all i just wanted something] but i still thought it was good.
my mom really cant handle too spicy so really didnt really eat it. and my brother didnt even TRY it!! i hate that so much >:( i was begging him the whole night but i think that actually amuses him. argg.
but they liked the biscuits. happy herbivore says she uses vegan dads recipe, but saince i have my new cookkbookkkkkk, i used that one but subbed about one cup of flour[it called for 1 2/3] with whole wheat. so now ive got leftovers.
well see what i do with that tomorrow. i wanted to make my own veggie pattys but that will have to wait i guess till i get rid of leftovers. anyways that photo above is it. oh and i added some flax to mine in case you were wondering what that brown stuff floatin around was.

ok now have a nice night!
tomorrow is friday! yay!

cool contest!

ive been entering contests left and right for some cool giveaways and i found this cool one!
http://www.hangrypants.com/2009/05/she-says-element-bars-giveaway/comment-page-3/#comment-19055

go get yourself entered, or dont and give me a greater chance of winning ;P

food!

hi nonexistent blog readers.
ha!
i thought i do some food blogging.

first off we have some oatmeal i made like a week ago. it was actually steel cut oats to be precise and the reason i remember is because i actually had time to cook em. we really need to buy some rolled oats though cause i dont have time for steel cut on school days :( *3 more weeks, 3 more weeks[sigh]*
in this awesome concoction i think i mashed half a banana and melted it with the oats i might or might not have added sweetner oh and theres a possibility of PB but i really cant remember it would have been a good addition. on the top you see:
-the other half of the banana sliced
-chocolate chips
-that awesome trader joes bran cereal. there little cinnamon roll shapes
-a dollup of vanilla soy yogurt sprinkled with brown sugar


next i had some thing[i dont know WHAT to call it] i made using up some stuff in our fridge.
i mixed some potatoes, spinich, and vegenaise together and i think that was all.
i stuffed that between to eggplant cutlets poured some marinara ontop and added a bit of teese


i think it was two nights ago i had at my second attempt to make......
SEITAN!
all right the last time it was really really tough and chewy
so i was like i need to knead!!!
so i needed this time for maybe like 15-20 minutes. much better this time but im still somewhat dissappointed and i think next time i make it im gonna do the traditional boiling method. i baked it the last two times because i used this recipe. we bought this hugfe bag of frozen stir fry veggies quite some time ago so i used that for the veggies and i made some plain white rice to go with it.

later that night i used the left over rice to make some delisshhhhhhh rice pudding. yum yum yum sorry no photo, lol.
i just took the rice added some milk and sugar and heated it up until it thickened. then i added cinnamon vanilla and nutmeg. i think that was pretty much it. i made it so i could have it for bfast the next day...but i almost ate it all that night. ha

also using the left over seitan and veggies i just threw that in a pita for leftover dinner last night.

and the last food post was my huge breakfast lunch meal i had today. kept me really full.
i got some tj's meatballs[vegan ofcourse] heated them up with some spinich[pi just love that stuff :)] and i used the last of "nacho cheese" sauce ive had in my fridge all week (i was craving nachos earlier in the week...didnt really fit the bill. sorry most of the vegan cheese sauces ive tried really dont taste like cheese but i proceded using in bean burritos etc throughout the week) sorry totally did like a bunny trail thing there but anyways i just slapped the rest of that on the meatballs and spinich and stuffed it in a whole wheat pita. it was realllyyy good!!!
for the fries i mixed up about a tablespoon of veganaise, some lemon juice and dried herbs [oregano, basil, rosemary, & some garlic salt] i poured that over some frozed tj's crinkle cut potatoes and put them in the toaster oven.

served with some apples.
and thats all i guess.
im gonna make another post soon about some other stuff ive been thinking about lately...


ps. dont you love how most of these photos were taken in daylight?!?!
yay me!!
it sorta has to do with the fact that ive been trying to not eat for a while before i go to bed and wanting to get to sleep earlier

something cool

subway is very informative!
i thought i wasnt gonna be able to eat it!
http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/menunutrition/nutrition/nutritionFAQs.aspx

num nums

today i woke up ridiculously late. ridiculously late.
but when i did wake uyp i decided to have a smoothie :) yay.
so i threw some carrots, fresh strawberries, frozen blueberries, frozen mangos, one banana, some flax and a bit of soymilk in the blender.
i also decided to have some naturespath acai apple granola in soymilk just cause its tasty.
because we had driven around and saw coldstones[i miss] earlier today and last night i kept reading rave reviews about scoops in LA, and i can have neither at the moment, i opted for a wannabe banana split sundae before i headed off to church. on my vanilla soy delicous i had a banana, some chocolate chips, and about a teaspoon of TJ's organic strawberry jam. yum :)
at church tonight i was telling my youth group that next weekend i was going down to LA to have a birthday BBQ with my brother and his GF. they thought it was funny that i was going down there for BBQ since the city i live in is famous for BBQ. then i said that we are all vegetarians so it didnt really matter. they thought that was pretty funnny. haha i then told they technically I myself was vegan. they were surprised and actually seemed somewhat impressed. lol
pretty nice to have that off my back cause i kinda dread telling people that....
*sigh*

when my mom picked me and my lil bro up from church, she just laughed. [she pretty much never cooks] so i asked if we could have panera since i found out there were a few vegan items on the menu. i ended up having the black bean soup w the french bread. wish the whole wheat was completely vegan cause that would be much healthier! also the black bean soup was pretty good, but it seems so easy, i could just make it at home for probably a few bucks cheaper.

anways see ya!

eek!

time for a major update.
well lets see heres a lame photo of something i made back on the second of may[wowww] to use up leftovers[first photo]
basically ive had a few jumbo pasta shells in my pantry for FOREVERRR that i hadnt had a use for them. then i also had some fresh spinich that was gonna go bad that i wanted to use. i also had some leftover cheezy sauce after making veganyumyum's mac and cheeze a few days before[which was quite tasty!] i also had some eggplant that my mom had bought. i used it the night before for some ratatouille but since i had only made it for me i didnt use the whole thing. i ended up cooking the eggplant and spinich then adding that to the cheezy sauce. i stuffed the shells with that and then topped with some marinara sauce. it was soooo good. im definetely thinking i could change that up slightly and make it not just to use up leftovers in the future!

so this past few weeks i havent really cooked much. the week befor elast i was sick for a day or two. i made some yummy yummy miso soup though packed with veggies.
earlier this week i made fatfreevegan's easy spinich mushroom lasagna[which was great] other than that ive been eating alot of leftovers and what not.

tonight i wanted some tofu while it was still fresh[i had opened it up and used half of it for the lasagna]
so i put some seseame oil in a pan with onions, garlic, mushrooms[leftover from the lasagna] carrots, and edamame. i also had some aspagus. i pan fried some tofu that i had marinated in some chinese chicken salad dressing too. thers a picture for that as well.[second photo]

in other news.....
ive been trying to green up a bit. i bought some toms natural toothpaste at my last visit to target instead of colgate. i also bought ecotools makeup brushes because mine were falling apart. these ecotools ones are "earth friendly" and theyre much cheaper and softer and durable than the ones i was using. [sorry bareminerals]
i know theres a ton of things i need to change but its a start!
i really want to see if i can make some homemade soap or something of the matter as well!
which also reminds me ive been realllyyy wanting to start an herb garden! hopefully soon!
ill update on that. :)


one more thing!
i want to start eating raw from anywhere like once a week, to once a month!

hey there

so i realized just posting every darn vegan thing i eat is kinda dumb. so im just gonna post something if i really have somehting to say about it. or if i didnt use someone elses recipe..
like tonight. when i was in santa barbara a week ago we stopped at the cost plus world market and picked up a few things...i bought this indian sauce, jalfreezi. ok im totally completely new to indian cuisine im trying to learn more about all kinds of foods. so i thought i kinda give indian a try tonight. what i ended up doing was baking some tofu in the oven with the jalfreezi and i also added some chickpeas to that. then i made some whole wheat couscous and i put a bit of lemon in there[which i didnt taste much of in the result] and peas, and cinnamon. so both thing i made were pretty good, but i dont think they really went together. got any advice on indian cuisine, like what flavors go well together, heck ill take advice for any type of food.
so much to learn....
theres a crappy pic down there! :D
oh by the way i made vegan dads creamy
zuccini soup last night and it was gooddd :)

oh hai blog!
almost didnt post.
i dont have pictures...been to lazy
but basically i got back from LA yesterday.
i tried to be vegan most of the week, and when i was with dakota it was super easy because she rocks, [and i even got down to 130 lbs!!] but i slipped up a few times....once with chicken...so bad.
anyways on saturday i got sick to my stomach for like an hour maybe. it was so so so SO terrible. i was so scared i had a food borne disease or something. [those e-coli videos from foods class are really scary]. but i survived and vowed to be vegan from here on out and really really try to eat healthier. i dont knwo what it was that made me feel so bad but i ended up throwing away the hummus i made sat today :( i think i used an old lemon, so yeah. or maybe old pie. I DONT KNOW! but i feel like crap for having to toss so much.
today though i made some yummy pumkin chocolate chip muffins. everyone really liked them[i was the only vegan] here
and i also made a spinich tofu frittata here
ok byyyeee

ps....anyone wanna buy me veganomicon?

how fun!

this is terrible. im spending so much time just reading cooking blogs. haha

earlier i had some of my leftover tofu loaf[that was crumbly/mushy] and i just heated it up in a non stick pan with some of trader joes roasted potatoes. i also made a smoothie with celery, green apples, mango, pineapple juice, flax meal, a little soymilk, a little peanut butter, and a little soy deliciious chocolate and peanut butter soy icecream. it kinda ended up tasting like apples with peanut butter. it was good but when i started i was aiming for an all fruit smoothie but i didnt have any banana which i wanted for smoothness and a less green flavor, so thats how i ended up adding all that other stuff at the end...
anyways, cool survery thing!
1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
im still strying to find one that really works for me. sucks that silks no longer organic

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
ive been really wanting to test out some cinnamon rolls, a cheezy dish, and something with whole wheat flour

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
i dont really usually do toppings, bu ti love kettle corn

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
i made bread a couple of weeks ago that i was really dissappointed with. it was my fault cuse i didnt let it rise nearly as long as it was supposed too

5. Favorite pickled item?
pickles?

6. How do you organize your recipes?
i have a binder that in the last week ive been printing out recipes and putting them in

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
i guess mostly trash....i really need to go more green

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
i guess something very healthy with alot of protein like soy based[tofu, soy beans etc] whole wheat bread, and fruit smoothies.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
?

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
well ive only tried soy delicious peanut butter chocolate so far and its pretty good

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
kitchenaid mixer

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
cinnamon probably

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
i dont technically own any...theyre my moms. but i guess it would be better homes and gardens new cookbook. i really want to get veganomicon though!

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
thats really hard, depends on my mood

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
itd probably be somehting baked, like cookieas or something

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
ive only had tofu so far! :(

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
probably later in the day

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
yummy trio bars, "potato crisps", and swedish fish.....we need to buy less snacks

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
meatless meatballs, asparagus, berries

20. What’s on your grocery list?
a tonn of stuff. spices, soymilk, veggies, so much!

21. Favorite grocery store?
trader joes

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
cinnamon rolls!

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
veganyumym!

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
oh goodness. possibly swedish fish, pure sugar i know.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
tahini?

26. If you could eat dinner at a vegan cookbook author’s home, who would it be?
?

yum! apple pie!

many moons ago i printed out veganyumyum's mini apple pie recipe.
actually it was months ago. maybe in the summer, cant quite remember exactly. anyways that was when i found her blog[how, i dont remember] i wasnt vegan but i loved it and for some reason i just began following her blog. when i happened to have all the ingrediants for something i thought it was so fun to make something vegan! haha plus ive been drinking soymilk for quite sometime.
so now i finally decided to use the recipe. this was my first time making pie let alone vegan pie and id say it came out pretty good. my mother and grandma[not vegans] had some too. my gma said the bottom of the pie crust could have been crispier [i agreed] and she said if i would have used a glass pan[i used one of those foil things, i totally forgot about our pan] if would have done the trick. i think i could have also cooked it just a few minutes longer too. next time i suppose!
also, instead of making mini pies i made one regular sized pie!
before the top crust

with the top crust and brushed with soymilk

baked and eaten!

oh man

so i gotta catchup and i have like 2 minutes to do so. i promis ill add more like i was supposed to do a week ago tomorrow!
anyways i have messed up a few times since tring out this vegan thing but ive also been cooking alot of stuff! and today i picked up some nutritional yeast, and tahini so that should come in handy!
ok a week or two ago i made yummy chocolaste chip cookies from http://viveleveganrecipes.blogspot.com/2006/01/homestyle-chocolate-chip-cookies.html">here. as i said they were yummmyyy. but a little on the fluffy side i think..but still. delicious and super easy.

also on friday i tried out this cake recipe for caramelized sugar spice cake which was all around awesome except im pretty sur ei burned the sugar make it all taste...well kinda burnt :( but the texture was awesome and i made my own frosting of powdered sugar, vegn margarine, and possibly[cant remember]soymilk and a chai tea latet base and oh myyy goodness it was amazing. didnt get pictures though.
and today i made a tofu loaf from here
and brussels sprouts[i used veganyumyum superfantastic brussels sprouts recipe]

ahh totally havent posted and havent updated either!! no time!!
im preparing tofu right now for tomorrows lunch though and tonight i have pasta with asparagus, tomato, and meatless meatballs!

vegan chili

hi!

ill be back with more about me and becoming vegen tomorrow, but i just wanted to post what i had for dinner today!

i veganized a chili recipe(super easy all i had to do was replace the beef for vegen boca grillers/crumbles) and it was delicious! i had some whole wheat pita bread with it too and it was soo good :)