Monday, June 29, 2009

a whole cluster of things

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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!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

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

Monday, June 22, 2009

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:

Saturday, June 20, 2009

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

Friday, June 19, 2009

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?

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

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 :)

Sunday, June 7, 2009

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:
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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:
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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

Thursday, June 4, 2009

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!