Summerloco

Shopping

2007-06-14T03:53:00.000-07:00

"the biggest artichoke I've ever seen. I placed it next to a normal artichoke to show how big it is"

Now I normally don't post my shopping trips because they take so long, but I often get asked by non-vegans "what do you eat!" and if they are vega*n then it's still "what do you eat" so here's our big-payday-shopping-trip, all of the canned/dried/frozen stuff will last for a month, the fresh stuff will last for 1-2 weeks.

*=organic

5 LB bag gala apples
8 orange nectarines (and they are so good)
8 black & red plums
2 red bell peppers
2 yellow bell peppers
2 orange bell peppers
1/3 LB fresh dates*
1 LB baby spring mix*
1 1/2 LB parsnips
6 asain pears
9 kiwis
1 LB portabella mushrooms
2 6oz raspberry O'soy yogurt cups*
2 6oz blueberry O'soy yogurt cups*
4 blocks firm tofu*
1 carton Silk unsweetened*
3 of the biggest artichokes I've ever seen (pictured above)
1 box plum antioxident white tea
1 LB brown rice flour*
2 LB dry white beans
2 cans kidney beans
2 cans small red beans
3 cans small white beans
2 cans chickpeas
1 can black beans
1g saffron*
7oz package garam marsala
1 bottle pomegranate molasses
2 LB moong dal (split yellow lentils)
1 bottle La Choy soy sauce (it is gluten-free)
1 package Lundberg Mochi Sweet Rice Cakes* (these are so good and chrunchy)
3 LB frozen blueberries
12 LB frozen strawberries
6 LB mixed frozen fruit (dole)
4 shelf-stable cartons Westsoy unsweetened*
1 bottle lemon pepper seasoning
6 LB ruby grapefruit
2 limes
1 bottle hot sauce
1 bottle garlic infused red wine vinagar

"inside my fridge"

"crisper drawer"

"the pantry"

24th post

2007-06-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

I need to start updating daily, instead of saving all my pictures lol, cause it takes me forever to write these long posts!

Oh and this time I have pictures of some of the food in the garden :)

Salad of Mixed spring greens*, sugar snap peas**, chickpeas, carrots, toasted almonds, and the oh-so-infamous: thousand island dressing. Oh and some Japanese sweet potatoes :)

Here's some fresh onions from the garden. I like to peel, clean, trim and slice them, then put them in the freezer so I always have plenty on hand.

Hehe, I was trying to get fancy. A sliced green apple topped with a (peeled) sliced kiwi.

Fresh sugar snap peas**. This are going to be cleaned, trimmed, blanched, shocked (ice water) and frozen.

Look, I got a steamer! I found it at a garage sale for like $2 and it's only been used once! This is perfect for blanching vegetables to go in the freezer

A steamed artichoke with thousand island dressing. Sounds ~~grossly~~ interesting, but is really good. I'd never had fresh artichokes before because I didn't know how to cook them, but I was watching good eats the other day and he said how to cook artichokes, so I bought a few, and they're great.

I used my new steamer and made some steamed Japanese sweet potatoes**, sugar snap peas**, and carrots topped with
slivered almonds.

I wasn't in the mood for a smoothie so I made a fruit salad instead. Here's the ingredients before:
1 apricot
red grapes
raw almonds
1 medium gala apple
1 kiwi
crystallized ginger
raspberry soy yogurt*

Heres all the fruit chopped up

And finished up with the yogurt and almonds.

Steamed kale** with sesame oil and steamed japanese sweet potatoes**

THV Herb Sunflower Bread. I found a recipe for a quinoa and sunflower bread, but I didn't have all the ingredients, so I just used the measurements and used different flours and added herbs instead, so really I ended up making my own recipe ~~since I can't ever follow directions and keep to a recipe~~. So this one has brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, basil, rosemary, sunflower seed, oregano, and some other stuff. I made a mini loaf this time because I was scared I wouldn't have enough flour, so I'm gonna double it and add some flaxseed next time, because it got a little crumbly when I toasted it.

Smoothie of strawberries, orange extract, green tea and fresh stevia**

I call it, Kale Mountain, it doesn't look that big, but it's a good ten pounds worth (from the garden). And it took forever to clean, de-stem, chop, blanch and freeze.

THV stuffed italian acorn squash. It's got acorn squash (duh) , broccoli, tomatoes, italian seasoning, rosemary and lentils. It's really good and sorta tastes like pizza (to me at least). It's better in the winter though because the squash has more flavor.

Smoothie of mixed dole frozen fruit (pineapple, honeydew, strawberries, grapes, peaches), stevia*, green tea powder (matcha) and soymilk*.

I used my Herb Sunflower bread and made a sandwich of asparagus, lettuce*, mustard*, and yellow bell peppers.

Remember my guinea pig Lola that was pregnant, well Mango is doing good (I couldn't get her to sit still for a picture though), but Lola isn't. You see she has really long hair, and it's normally in the 90's here, so I decided to shave her, and she looks awful! Thank god she doesn't have a mirror, but I do think the other guinea pigs were laughing at her.

:: 23rd post ::

2007-05-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

"greenleaf lettuce, oakleaf lettuce**, raw red bell pepper**, carrot, tofu (with soy sauce), mung beans*, radishes, sunflower seeds, lentils, millet*, 1000 island dressing*"

THV Salty Roasted Asparagus over Sesame Mung Beans. The asparagus** is roasted with soy sauce and served over mung beans* that have been tossed with sesame oil, red bell pepper** and fresh basil** and garnished with sunflower seeds. Oh hey almost everything in this meal is organic, did you notice? Just the sesame oil and sunflower seeds weren't.

close up

I had some beautiful veggies so I decided to make a stir-fry:

Here are some of the ingredients. Red bell pepper**, yellow bell pepper, tofu, portabella mushrooms, asparagus**, scallions** (in the little bowl), garlic, tangelo zest (I just put the whole tangelo down in the picture).

Here is some broccoli**, kale**, and spinach**. Not pictured was also some gf soy sauce, peas, brown rice and garlic hot sauce.

Miso soup, made of kale, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, chickpeas, carrots, onion, red miso, and sesame seeds. Not very traditional, but very good.

I wanted another little veggie platter. This time we have brown rice tortilla chips, roasted asparagus, and raw red bell pepper, and roasted garlic hummus. I wanted some carrots too but I was out :(

Wild mushroom soup. It's very good, but needs work, it's got enoki*, portabella and oyster mushrooms, oregano, lemon and basil**. I garnished it with extra basil** and enoki mushrooms*

red leaf lettuce, yellow bell peppers, tofu*, chickpeas, radishes, asparagus. I tried to make a different salad dressing by mixing grainy mustard with seasoned rice vinegar, I really liked it at first, but I could only eat half of the dressing because it was way to strong.

Smoothie if purple grapes, blueberries, strawberries**, blackberries, papaya, stevia*, and soymilk*

Fruit salad of green grapes, gala apple, Asian pear, kiwi, and strawberries**. I'd never had an Asian pear before, and they're really good, they taste like (tome at least) like a peach, but have the texture of an apple crossed with a pear.

Salad of lentils, romaine, carrots, red bell pepper, asparagus and 1000 island dressing. With a side of brown rice tortilla chips (love these!), I sprinkled these with dried oregano before I baked them, and then topped them with fresh basil after they were done. Yummy, though I sorta burned them :(

Smoothie of strawberries**, soymilk*, stevia*. I decided to do a little twist and add some Chinese 5 spice powder (which is star anise, cloves, cinnamon, anise, and ginger), it was really good, I only added a little, so it was just like a hint of it, and it smelled awesome.

THV 4 bean chili. Salad of red leaf lettuce, carrots, red bell pepper, lentils, 1000 island dressing. The chili I made a while ago and froze, it's so good, though I did it a little differently than normal, I roasted the garlic, onions and pepper, then blended it with the tomatoes, so it was kinda sweet. Next time I'm gonna try and add more veggies.

Salad Days

2007-04-21T17:00:00.001-07:00

I will warn you now, if you do not like salads, close this page! I've gone salad crazy, eating at least 1 a day, sometimes 2, sometimes even having fruit salad for breakfast! Though going salad crazy isn't nessisarly a bad thing, I'm finding that I really like different things in my salads, though I don't like a lot of raw things, like I prefer roasted cauliflower to raw, etc. And to make sure I get enough protein/calories I've started adding beans, grains and tofu, which is really good. Though I am trying to make my salads a little different every time, I always use the same lettuces (red leaf, green leaf and romaine) I always add carrots, and I always use the same dressing HERE

As always:

THV = A recipe for The Healthful Vegan
* = oraganic
** = organic and local, most likely from our farm

"green leaf lettuce, roasted red potatoes, roasted asparagus, roasted red peppers (water packed), grated carrots, tofu* (frozen, thawed, pressed, sauted in soy sauce), ground flax seed*, olives, 1000 island dressing*"

close up

"green leaf lettuce, roasted parsnips, tofu* (sauteed in sesame oil), portabellas, wild rice*, grated carrot, roasted red peppers, 1000 island dressing*"

close up

"romaine, grated carrot, tofu* (THV Sesame Dijon Tofu), roasted cauliflower (tossed with curry powder), roasted red peppers, roasted asparagus, fresh basil**, 1000 island dressing*"

THV, Curried Sweet Potato Soup. I totally rewrote this recipe. It used to be my Curried Wild Rice and Lentil Soup, with sweet potatoes and curry, but now it's Curried Sweet Potato Soup with parsnips and curry. It's so good and really simple, especially with some fresh basil** on top (from the garden!)

"green leaf and red leaf lettuce, petite peas (frozen, thawed), wild rice*, lentils, grated parsnips, grated carrot, roasted red peppers, tofu* (sauteed with soy sauce), mushrooms (sauteed with the tofu), 1000 island dressing. I think there was some sesame seeds in there too. Isn't my new bowl pretty? It's nice and big and perfect for taking pictures."

Fried banana sandwich. Well it's not really fried. I took 2 slices of my Ener-g bread, lightly toasted it, then mashed up a small banana with some cloves and cinnamon, spread it onto the bread, and cooked it in a skillet with non-stick cooking spray until nice and browned. Very good, with a side of grapefruit and papaya.

Another Power Smoothie for Rock Climbing class, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, tofu*, wild rice*, maple extract (this stuff is awesome), stevia*.

"romaine, tofu* (THV orange pom tofu), grated carrot, roasted red peppers, ground flax seed*, sliced radishes, split peas, sesame seeds, roasted asparagus**, walnuts, 1000 island dressing*"

Here's one of my favorite snacks. I love Stonyfield Farms Soy Yogurts*, they're really good, think and flavorful, but I like to jaz mine up. This one here is strawberry, so I added a bunch of fresh sliced strawberries**, and I mean a lot of strawberries, a spoonful of ground flax seed* and sometimes a little bit of walnuts (which I did here), so good! And keeps me nice and full, without being too full for yoga.

Roasted sweet potato fries, sauteed Chinese broccoli and basmati rice with ginger, garlic, scallions and Chile. The sweet potatoes were just sprayed with olive oil cooking spray and roasted until tender, then tossed with a tiny bit of sea salt and stevia*, the Chinese broccoli (found at the Asian supermarket) was just thrown into a pot with a little bit of water, soy sauce and chili powder and cooking until tender. For the rice I found the recipe HERE, I did make a few substitutions though: I didn't use the cilantro, or oil, I added some basil**, and I did mine a little easier by using a rice cooker for the rice (I can't make rice to save my life!) then when the rice was almost done cooking, I added the scallions*, garlic, and ginger, that way the flavors would mellow out a little, and I don't have to dirty another pan, then added everything else. It was really good I loved it, even my mom liked it (and she's "allergic" to healthy food), she even asked for a bowl (though when I first talked her into trying it she looked really scared). Oh and for those of you who know me and are thinking "She ate white rice!!!", yes I did!. I read THIS article here about basmati rice, and I've been trying to feed my dosha correctly, and basmati rice supposedly balances out all 3 doshas, so I don't mind eating white rice (plus I get plenty of fiber)

Smoothie of soy milk*, ground flax seed*, wild blueberries, pineapple, a tiny bit of strawberries** (like 2), and maple extract, yum!

"greenleaf lettuce, carrots, radishes, split peas, small red beans, tofu*, leftover basmati rice (from the recipe above), walnuts, tofu dressing*."

I decided to do a veggie platter, because I was really in the mood for hummus. There's carrots, roasted broccoli, cucumbers and brown rice tortilla chips (I took a Food For Life brown rice tortilla, cut it up and cooked until crunchy). For the hummus I threw some chickpeas (2 1/2 cups), 2 cloves of roasted garlic (I roasted it along side the broccoli), salt, pepper, 1/2 TBS raw tahini*, then turned on the processor and drizzled in about 1 cup soy milk until it came to my desired consistency. This was very good, though I found I don't like cucumber and hummus much, the tortilla "chips" were the best, they have so much flavor on their own, really nutty and just great, BUY THEM! (And no they didn't pay me to advertise them :)

"red leaf lettuce, edamame*, tofu* (cooked in sesame oil), sunflower seeds, carrot, cucumber, radishes, roasted red peppers, lentils, tofu dressing*."

For anyone wondering, I only got a participant ribbon at my rock climbing competition. There's a gym in Richmond Virginia called Inner Peaks, and the kids there are so good! They climb like everyday for 4-5 hours from what I heard, and it shows, they game and totally beat me so I wasn't too upset (at east my ribbon was purple), if they weren't there, I think I would've have done much better. Oh well, I had fun, and most of the people who belayed me said I had really good form on the walls, so... :) yay me!

Little Brake

2007-04-20T15:25:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, I know I haven't updated in about 3 weeks (oh no!) but I'm having serious computer/camera problems, though I should be back soon, with lots of smoothie, salad, strawberry and other pictures.

Oh and I got the shoes I won at my rock climbing competition. They're blue and silver with a flower on the tip, very nice. And I'm competing in another competition (top roping this time) on the 28th!

A Little Bit Of Everything #3

2007-03-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

THV my Sesame Kale and Snow Peas again. I added chickpeas to make it a real meal.

[day before fating] I was reading The Urban Vegan's blog the other day, where she talked about doing a juice fast, and how it helps her digestion and all that stuff, and I have a horrible digestive system, I get sick after every meal (no matter what I eat), chronic constipation (though I get plenty of fiber and water) and I'm bloated all the time. So I figured I'd give it a shot. I bought 2 bottles (2 quarts) of juice. A bottle of Bolthouse Farms C-Boost and a bottle of Bolthouse Farms Blue Goodness. My plan is to drink both bottles of juice and lots of water (I was going to do a water fast but I didn't want to lose weight). Wish me luck.
[Day of fast] Well this was a complete failure, I had a massive stomach ache all day (worse than normal) an I ended up drinking all my juice by 5p.m. because I was so hungry, I ate an apple and, amazing, the stomach ache went away! I definitely will not be trying that again.

Fruit salad of apple, kiwi, pineapple and lime juice. I was going to go help out at my climbing gym (Redpoint) where they're having a bouldering competition, so I was going to help with registering people and stuff, so I did that then went to go watch my friends. To get points for finishing a climb you had to have 2 people watch you and then sign your sheet, so I helped my friends Haley and Lexi on that, but it looked like so much fun I signed up too. I'd never been in a competition before (of any kind) so I was super nervous, but I had a lot of fun and got 3rd place in beginner level (v0-v2 for those informative in climbing), for my prizes I got a free pair of climbing shoes (retail $90), a Redpoint coffee mug, a shirt that says "run like a girl" and a competition shirt. I think I'm going to do more competitions as this was so great.

Stir-fry of Chinese greens (it looked like broccoli raab but I'm not sure what it really is), mushrooms, garlic, red pepper flakes, peas, soy sauce, orange zest (Orange zest and soy sauce are so awesome together) and tofu. For the tofu I coated each side in lots of fresh pepper and a tiny bit of salt, then browned it in non-stick cooking spray then added it back to the stir-fry in the end. And of course a yam baked on the side, seriously awesome.

THV More 4 Bean Chili

Italian Roasted Red Peppers. All I do is take jarred roasted red peppers, and add peppercorns, rosemary, sometimes thyme, and garlic and it transforms them to Italian Roasted Red Peppers! Perfect for sandwiches or snacking.

Green leaf lettuce, carrot (grated), roasted red potatoes, olives, roasted chickpeas, and this recipe for 1000 island dressing I found HERE, it was good, tasted like thousand island, but a little bland.

My power smoothie, every Wednesday I have rock climbing, so I have to eat extra [calories] to keep up my strength, and normally a smoothie for me is only 200 calories or so, and this one was 370. It has strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, soft tofu, cooked millet, almond extract and stevia, it was so creamy and thick it was
perfect.

THV Chili Orange Roasted Chickpeas. There's a few ways I like to roast my chickpeas, Chili Orange, just soy sauce, Salt & Vinegar Chicks (THV), and just curry powder. I just made the Chili Orange and Soy Sauce this time, I would've liked to make SALT & Vinegar Chicks, but I didn't have any vinegar (weird!)

Kale and potatoes with roasted garlic. I steamed the chopped kale until tender, then added 1 small roasted potato (chopped), and used a fork to mash the potato, then added 3 or 4 cloves of roasted garlic, and mashed it in, then added salt and pepper. I loved the texture, it was just perfect, I think some mushrooms or peas would've made it even better

A bit of everything #2

2007-03-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

As always THV means it's a recipe for The Healthful Vegan. We went shopping Wednesday (14th) so I have a good amount of stuff to work with.

THV More Sunny Tomato Soup, really I just wanted to show off my new mug, isn't it pretty? It's a lot bigger than most, so it's perfect for soup.

Roasted parsnips and asparagus. The asparagus with roasted with a little gf soy sauce and topped with sliced garlic. The parsnips were just roasted plain.

A Breast Of Orange Pom Tofu atop a bed of Tarragon Millet and Sesame Kale and Snow Peas (wow that sounded fancy didn't it?) I've told you about the tofu before, basically it's tofu marinated in orange juice, pomegranate molasses and some other stuff. Normally I cut it into cubes, but I cut the block into filet's this time so it'd look fancier. They finally had millet (only 1 bag left) at the health food store, so I made that. It's so good, kinda like quinoa, but fluffier and without the little tails (which is the one reason why I don't eat it as often as I should). I added some dried tarragon to it and it added a nice licorice-like flavor. Then the bottom layer is my Sesame Kale and Snow Peas, which is steamed snow peas and kale, with sesame seasonings. (the tofu and sesame kale are both THV recipes). You would think that orange pomegranate, tarragon and sesame oil all together in one meal would taste weird, but it actually was very nice.

Toast with 2 jams. The slice on the right has my all-fruit blueberry jam (polaner) and the slice on the left has all-fruit black cherry (also polaner). I think I prefer the blueberry because it has more flavor. On the side is some fresh pineapple (it's been months since I've had any) and I'm not sure if you can tell, but there is a blue cup next to the plate (top right corner), in there is some "Detox Lemonade". I heard of a recipe (can't remember where, I think it was on a raw newsletter), all you do is mix filtered water, fresh lemon juice and maple syrup or honey (or other sweetener) and drink. The lemon is supposed to help your digestive system, and the sweetener makes it less tart. I didn't have any maple syrup, so I used stevia. I don't think it helped because I still got a stomach-ache

Here's a simple sandwich of Ener-g Tapioca Bread, baby spinach*, mustard*, and portabella mushroom. And some asparagus on the side, normally I just roast my asparagus with a little soy sauce, but this time I wanted to try something fancier. So I roasted 3 cloves of garlic until soft, threw it in my mini food processor (my mom bought me an Oster Immersion Blender on sale for $12 last Friday, and it has this awesome little chopper attachment that works perfect for things like this.), along with the garlic I added 1/4 cup soy milk* and 1/2 TBS cornstarch and a pinch of salt and blended it until smooth,. It was pretty good, nice garlic flavor, but also somewhat bland, I added a little mustard* and that perked it right up, then I poured it over the asparagus. I think I may just stick with my soy roasted asparagus because it took a bit of work, though it was a nice change of pace.

THV Morning Millet, I wanted to try and make something different for breakfast, so this is cooked millet, seasoned with cloves and cinnamon (and another secret I can't tell you about :), and some fresh ripe mango.
I definitely need to cut the mango smaller next time, but that's the only complaint. Oh and I added cashews which were like the icing on the cake, made it perfect.

Simple stir-fry of frozen asparagus mix, some fresh mushrooms, garlic, gf soy sauce and baby spinach*, served with jasmine rice. I was quite disappointed with the rice, because I'd heard that it was much better than most rice, very flavorful and fragrant, but it just tasted like rice. Oh well...

A Little Of Everything #1

2007-03-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

I find it's a lot easier for me to post 1 week of pictures all at once, instead of a post everyday. Here's all my pictures for 3/8-3/14. Oh and THV means it's a recipe for The Healthful Vegan :)

A nice balanced dinner. Roasted sweet potato "fries" tossed with a little sea salt and stevia (the starch), cooked moong dal, or yellow lentils (the protein) and some frozen vegetable stir-fry mix cooked with some soy sauce and grapefruit zest (the veg). Very simple and good.

Breakfast Ice Cream. Frozen bananas and pineapple blended with a little stevia and just enough water to make it blend. So good, looks just like vanilla soft serve doesn't it. I really wanted it to look like vanilla bean ice cream, but I had no vanilla beans (too expensive), so instead, right before I ate it (after I took the picture), I stirred in a little ground cloves and it gave it the perfect finishing touch.

THV? Congeili (little shells) with mushrooms and peppers. I sauteed some portabellas and roasted red peppers with Italian seasoning, onions, and garlic, then added some cornstarch and soy milk. It was very good, but not enough flavor, and the onions weren't cooked long enough, so I had to pick those out :(

Gorgeous Rome apple I had for a snack. Can you see all the pink in the white? It was very flavorful, but a little mealy.

Normally I don't go all out for dinner, but the other day I wanted to so I made some short brown rice, Orange Pom Tofu (THV), a stir-fry (frozen stir-fry mix and some soy sauce) and some asian style greens (steamed mustard greens with sesame oil and sea salt). Everything was great except for the mustard greens. I'd never had them, so I bought a small bunch to try. I cooked them the same way I always cook my kale, but I hated them! They were so bitter it was awful, like dirt (yes I've tasted dirt)

I hate having to use those plastic bags for my groceries. So I made some of my own bags. We were given a big box of unused hospital scrubs, so I took some of the shirts and turned them into bags like the one above. The downsize is their huge, because the shirts were mainly extra larges, but oh well. I only made 2 so far, because I have to hand sew the top sides and bottom and handles, so it takes a good while. I'm gonna make more in the next couple days so we'll have enough for our re-stock shopping on the 15th.

THV 4 bean chili, yum. It's got lots of spices, tomato sauce, peppers, onions, chickpeas, kidney beans, pinto beans and black beans. I didn't have any pinto or chickpeas, so I substituted small red beans, some wild rice and black eyed peas instead. So great, though I missed my chickpeas :(

A really great breakfast. Half a papaya (I ate the other half at breakfast the other day), a Stonyfield Starwberry Soy Yogurt (4oz), to which I added some flaxseed, ground cinnamon and cloves, it really ups the flavor. And a slice of Ener-g Tapocia Bread with blueberry all-fruit spread. A perfect way to start the day.

Heres a pic of one of my (many) kitties. His name is coconut and he is blind and deaf (aren't his eyes cool? one blue and one green), you can read more about him Here. I was laying down and he decided to try and eat my hand, so I grabbed the camera and took a picture. Isn't he cute?

Food Porn

2007-03-03T05:38:00.000-08:00

Here we go, I have been saving up my pics all week so here's some food porn for you all (sorta). If it had THV in front of it, than it is a recipe for The Healthful Vegan.

THV Carrot Cardamom Doughnuts They were originally supposed to be cookies, but when I was looking for the sheet pan, I found this old doughnut pan, and turned them into doughnuts. I wanted to make them into muffins yesterday for a more breakfasty thing, but I couldn't find it, so they were just doughnuts again. I added some wild blueberries (frozen) to make them even more healthier. For the original version they're made out of brown rice flour, potato starch, flax seed, bananas, carrot, cinnamon, & cardamom. Very simple, and very good (They taste like cinnamon doughnuts from dun-kin donuts). They're perfect for breakfast with some fruit and a soy yogurt (or nuts).

THV(Tofu only) Stir fry of Napa Cabbage, Chickpeas, Peas, Broccoli, Water Chestnuts, Onions and Soy sauce. Then on the side is the rest of my Orange Pom Tofu from THV. It's probably my favorite tofu recipe. It's really simple, just soy sauce, orange juice, pomegranate molasses and garlic.

THV Chocolate Peppermint French Toast. Needs some more cocoa next time, otherwise very good. perfect with a side of mango.

Beautiful orange tomato, very flavorful. Can you tell which is the orange and which is the tomato?*

The best salad in the world, seriously: my Caveman Salad. It's basically small sups of lettuce filled with peas and dressed with an orange dressing. I'm seriously considering making it a THV recipe, but I'm not sure, it's too easy to be recipe.

THV? Super Yummy Delicious Everything Breakfast Bread. I made it the first time today. It's full of awesome things like brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, cloves, dried unsweetened coconut, cashews, raisins, wild blueberries, flax and some other less awesome things like water, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and stevia. It's so good, lightly sweet, and you get a crunch from the cashews, and chewiness from the raisins. Though I had some problems:

It didn't rise. I put a good amount of baking powder in it, but it didn't rise at all. I'm going to buy some yeast and try it again.
It fell apart. Normally just by adding flax it keeps everything together, but not with this. Instead it became very crumbly, so I cut it in half lengthwise, then cut into 12 large cubes, that way it's like a thick, short slice of bread :) And because it's so full of good stuff, it doesn't even need any EB or jam or anything.

If the yeast doesn't work out, I think I'm going to try and make them into muffins instead, that way no problems of cutting them :) Though I will have to rename them the Super Yummy Delicious Everything Magnificent Muffins

Another caveman salad. I've eaten one everyday for 4 days lol, so good.

Breakfast of sliced orange, johna gold apple and some of the Super Yummy Delicious Everything Breakfast Bread.

THV Sunny Tomato Soup. I've been working on this one for a while, I wanted it to be creamy and have a lot of flavor, but I couldn't give it a lot of flavor without overpowering. So this last time I made it was some Sunflower seed butter, and omg, the texture is awesome. I've tried making this with coconut milk, soy milk and stock, but I I found that using stock and the sunbutter gave me the texture I wanted (which is weird because the coconut milk couldn't). It still doesn't have a ton of flavor, but I think I like that. I want it to taste like a tomato soup, not make it with lots of herbs and spices. Other things in the soup are quinoa, peppers, onion, red pepper flakes, garlic ginger and coriander.

Lola

2007-03-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, sorry I've been MIA for the last few days, I've been super busy. I just wanted to tell you all that my guinea pig Lola had her babies this afternoon. She had 4 total, though 2 were stillborn, and 1 isn't doing too good :( The living ones are black (he/she's the one that isn't doing so good) and a brown & white. I named the black one Jujube (like the Chinese date. The nickname with be Juju) and the other Mango. Since I'm not sure weather they're girls or boys so depending on which it is, it's name will be Miss Mango or Mr. Mango.

Also I am looking for a cookbook tester. If anybody is interested, please e-mail me at Aprii13@aol.com

Lotsa Good Stuff

2007-02-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we we had to go to Lowes to return stuff, and since Lowes Foods is across the street, and I'm still searching for my millet and amaranth, I asked mom if we could go look. Now I rarely shop there because they are so over-prized, but they do have some things a normal grocery store doesn't have. Well they didn't have the millet or amaranth, but I did find 2 other items.

This is Polaners All Fruit Blueberry Jam. It is so good, I was actually looking for fig jam, and there was some, but it had sugar, and HFCS (High fructose corn syrup), and truthfully, that stuff kinda scares me lol. So since the Blueberry Jam is sweetened with only fruit juice, I got that (and it was on sale). I was really eager to try it, so when I got home I just tried some straight. It's awesome, and it really has little pieces of blueberries in it!

Next is Sunbutter What is sunbutter? Sunflower seed butter! I got a book from the Library called The Food Bible by Judith Wills (awesome book, it even has a full section of vegetarianism, and mentions veganism), and it talks about sunflower seeds/sunflower butter in the back of the book as being very good for you because of it's high vitamin E continent (27%), it also has high levels of copper & magnesium. And lucky for me I found it at Lowes! I checked their website, and I'm going to try and find the organic if I can, because that has even more vitamin E then the kind I got it (40%). It taste like a combo of Peanut butter, and cashew butter. Yum-O.

Now for the other food (besides jam):

For breakfast was a small Stonyfield Soy Yogurt (strawberry), 1 slice of Ener-g Tapocia Bread with 1/2 TBS of my new blueberry jam, and 1 large pink grapefruit dusted with stevia. Very yummy and the perfect mix of protein (yogurt), carbs (yogurt, bread, jam, grapefruit) and fat (bread, yogurt).

For a few days I've been thinking up a bean salad. I wanted something for when people go (Well where do you get your protein?) you can say: This! With 30g protein I think I did a good job. It also is lower in fat (10g) and very high in fiber (30g, more than 117% of your daily value)

It's made out of edamame, chickpeas, small red beans, grated carrots, scallions, sunflower seed butter, red pepper flakes, lime juice (I used a little orange juice because I had no limes) and soy sauce. The grated carrot looks like noodles doesn't it? I need to keep adjusting it though, It needed a little less soy sauce, and something was missing...I'll keep working on it!

Oh and look at this gorgeous plate I got! We walked next door to the dollar store (A little ways down from Lowes Foods) because mom needed some more reading glasses, and I always walk down the cooking-ware aisle, and I saw it! Only a dollar. You'll definitely be seeing it a lot (I ate my breakfast and lunch on it, see)

*EDIT*
Sorry I can't get it to let me put the link for the Sunbutter. The website is Sunbutter.com

Oh and Lola still hasn't had her babies :( Though she looks like she's about to pop.

A day of healthful eating

2007-02-24T16:02:00.000-08:00

As some of you know, I normally just post 1, maybe 2 meals a day, but today I decided to do a day of healthful eating. So here's my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I didn't include snacks though, they're too boring :)

Breakfast

2 slices of French Toast, basically I did the same thing I did last Tuesday, except I omitted the almond extract, and used a tiny bit of grapefruit zest instead of orange (I used Ener-g Tapioca Bread again). Very yummy. I ate this beside a large grapefruit "dusted" with Stevia. Does anybody find that eating breakfast with bread/rice helps keep them fuller. Especially bread for me. Though something like a tofu scramble and oven fries doesn't keep me full? I think it's the combo, Sweet + Bread + fullness.

Lunch

I decided to make a taco salad. I got the idea from Vegan Eats & Treats, though unfortunately I didn't have any brown rice tortillas. Though I did have some whole-grain corn tortillas (6 inch), so instead (because I thought they would make too small of bowls), I cut them into triangles and baked them in the oven until crispy. Then for the bowl:

I took some cooked small red beans that I made this morning. Mashed 1/4 cup in the bottom of my taco bowl with some cumin.

Then I added some green leaf lettuce (chopped).
(forgot to take picture of :)

Then in a skillet I cooked some parsnips, mushrooms, green bell peppers, onions, garlic, and canned diced tomatoes with cumin and chili powder until everything was soft. I spooned half of this over the lettuce.

Then I added some more beans (un-mashed)

Then the rest of the sauteed veggies, and arranged the chips around the edge

And it was delicious. The only thing I'd change is add some salsa, and cut the chips bigger, because the plan was too use them to pick up the filling.

Dinner

I was in the mood for some pasta. Earlier today I watched Healthy Appetite with Ellie Kreger, and on there she made pasta with roasted tomatoes. Basically she roasted garlic with some fresh tomatoes, then tossed it with pasta, beans, cheese and olive oil and basil. I didn't have any fresh tomatoes, so I took some canned tomatoes and drained them really good, then roasted them. It actually turned
out pretty good, though I wouldn't do it again because it didn't give it enough flavor for the time it took to roast. I sauteed some garlic and spinach in a skillet while the pasta was cooking with some Italian seasoning and a little sea salt. Then added the tomatoes and pasta. Magnifico (I think I spelled that right), very good.

Now I'd like to tell you about my favorite pasta. There is now many good gluten-free pastas out there that actually taste like pasta, but my favorite doesn't really taste like pasta. NutriKitchen makes pasta completely out of soybeans! And I love it, it doesn't really have the same texture or taste of pasta, but for me it's addictive. Anytime I go to Whole Foods (not often) I buy a bunch of this stuff. The main thing I love about the pasta is it's health benefits. It's full of fiber (11g), protein (22g), iron (60-70%), and it's also low fat (2.5g), and has Soy Isoflavones (46-70mg). Though it has 2 drawbacks. 1. the pasta tangles together really easily (I do stir it, and cook it in plenty of water) and it only comes in 1 shape. I wish it came in penne or something too.

Now I must confess something. I am... *tension builds up*

A Tea Addict (ATAA)

Yup that's right. Every month I try a new tea, green tea. At the moment I have 6 kinds of tea. Mango Zinger, Mint Green Tea (decaf), Mandarin Orange Green Tea (decaf), Cranberry Pomegranate Green Tea (bag), Acai Berry Green Tea (tin), Plain Green Tea (decaf) and Jasmine Passion fruit Orange Green Tea. My favorite is green tea, I particularly like the flavor, plain teas (herbal) don't have enough flavor to me. I like to drink mine with Stevia. Other tea addicts: how do you like yours?

So there's my day of healthful eating, I don't think I did too shabby :)

Behold...THE Salad!!

2007-02-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

Today I was in the mood for a salad. So since we had to go to Lowes and Blockbuster anyways...and Wal-mart is right next door. We stopped by and I got some more carrots, lettuce, canned tomatoes, soy yogurt, apples and some other stuff. Now I really do love salads, the dressing is hard for me though. I know eating a dressing with fat helps you absorb the nutrients, but I'd rather get my fat at other times in the day by eating nuts, so...

Another thing about salads for me,is they gotta be simple. I can't stand tomatoes, celery, raw bell peppers, anything like that in my salads. For me, it's gotta be lettuce or other greens-all kinds go, baby spinach, arugula, green leaf, Boston, romaine etc-, lots of grated carrot, and depending on the season an addition of radishes (sliced), fennel (sliced), sugar snap peas, lightly sauteed mushrooms, roasted parsnips, cooked beans (chickpeas, red, black) & roasted brussel sprouts (with soy sauce), are OK. Oh and roasted red peppers, I tried it for the first time tonight and really liked it.

For THV I don't have many dressing recipes, but I did make one for my salad tonight, though it was so simple, it's not gonna be put in THV, though I will share it with you:

Remember, I used about 4-5 cups lettuce, 1/2 cup grated carrot, and a bunch of roasted red peppers, so this makes a good amount of dressing.

1/2 cup fresh squeezed OJ (I found that after I squeezed the orange, I was obsessed with having to eat all the membranes and pulp left in it because I didn't want it to go to waste, I'm weird right?)
1/2 TSP dried basil, crushed between your fingers
1/2 TBS Dijon mustard
1/4 TSP dark sesame oil
pinch of sea salt

Whisk everything but the sesame oil together. Drizzle in the sesame oil while whisking. Beat until cream-ier.

The only thing I had a problem with the dressing was it was too sweet. I ended up sprinkling a pinch of sea salt over the top of the salad, which just made the balance perfect. The other nice thing I thought of about the dressing is that if you were eating it with spinach, the vitamin C would help your body absorb the iron right?

Hempiness

2007-02-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

Yesturday before my rock climbing class we stopped off at the health food store (down the street) to see if they had any millet/amaranth (which they didn't), but they did have these little sample packs of Living Harvest Hemp Protein, on sale for 85 cents. They had the chocolate and vanilla. I'm a big fan of vanilla (chocolate too), so I got one of those. I'm gonna try it next week, for breakfast on wednesday (I could use the protein and extra calories for my rock climbing). I'm thinking of blending it into a smoothie with some bananas and blueberries? Pineapple might be good too....

Poem

2007-02-20T14:50:00.000-08:00

OK fellow bloggers, I have a request.

A while ago I wrote a poem called My Name Is ED, and it's about my struggle with an eating disorder. Well I entered it to poetry.com's contest...didn't win but they nominated me for a new contest called Poets Choice...rate my poem, where you do just that, rate someones poem. If anybody on here would be nice enough to vote for my poem.

Here's the website
http://www.poetry.com/voteforme/poemvote1.asp?PID=11726522

I would be so grateful if any of you awesome bloggers *yes I'm sucking up* would vote for my poem.

Thank you!

Garlicky Tomato & Black-Eyed Pea Stew

2007-02-20T11:25:00.000-08:00

For lunch I was wanting some soup/stew, so I finally made this stew that I'd been thinking up in my head for a few days.

Basically it has Roasted Garlic crushed tomatoes (so good), more garlic, black-eyed peas, Italian seasoning, peppers, onions, nutritional yeast, spinach and olives. It was very good, but it needs some more work, it didn't have enough flavors.

Almond French Toast + Mango

2007-02-20T05:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days...I haven't had much to blog about. OK so for breakfast this morning I decided to make my *drum roll please* Almond French Toast!!! why is this such a big deal you ask? because it's awesome. Basically it's like a normal french toast recipe, but veganized, and it has almond extract instead of vanilla! It also has orange zest, cinnamon, and flaxy goodness. I haven't yet found a good gluten-free bread recipe, so I buy Ener-g bread at the local health food store, and it's perfect for my french toast, because it soaks up the batter really good. Why is this also good you ask? Because then it's super flavorful.

And on the side I had some fresh mango.

On other news... my guinea pig is pregnant. Now before you go loco on me about how breeding is bad (I know...All our cats, dogs, pigs, ferrets, horse (the male at least) are also spayed/neutered), this isn't my fault. You see, I had a guinea pig, her name is Lera, and Lera was lonely. So I looked for another female guinea pig for Lera. Eventually I found an add in the paper for guinea pigs. Some people were breeding and selling them, but they were getting out of the business, so they were selling them off. That's how I got Lola. They assured me she hadn't been near any males. But now a month later, she has just been getting bigger and bigger. At first I thought she was eating too much, but then I started to wonder, could she be pregnant? And yes she is. I think she'll be having her babies soon, because if you feel her belly, you can actually feel the babies. I'm excited and nervous. I just hope that she doesn't have like...10 piglets or something. A few is ok (I'm planning on keeping them)

Stay tuned and I'll keep giving updates on her.

Lera

Lola (she doesn't like to have her photo taken)

Celebrate

2007-02-19T06:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year Everybody! (and if I have the wrong date, I apologize)

Stir-fry with Sweet Potato

2007-02-16T09:52:00.000-08:00

I was being lazy for lunch, so I took the 2 bags of stir-fry mixes I bought yesturday (1 was Sugar Snap Pea Stir-fry and the other was Asparagus), mixed them together, picked out the green beans (I hate cooked green beans), then heated a large skillet, added some of the veggie mix, and some fresh mushrooms. Cooked until tender, then added some gluten-free soy sauce* and baby spinach*, cooked until the spinach was wilted then plated it. On the side I have a japenese sweet potato, which I cleaned, stabbed, and microwaved until tender. Simple but yummy

oh and of course you can't forget the seasonings. Fresh pepper and ground flaxseed

Shopping #1

2007-02-15T11:57:00.000-08:00

*(fridge)Japanese eggplants (front), giant carrot, more carrots, green bell pepper, cooked chickpeas, portabellas, asparagus, cooked quinoa, soy milk + more*

Sorry there was no posts yesterday. I had to go to work with mom so that we could do some of our Re-stock Shopping (once a month we do a large re-stock shopping trip, so the freezer and cabinets get restocked, then we buy fresh groceries every week), and then I had rock climbing last night. So yesterday we went to the Oriental Grocer, The Apple Crate (small health food store), and Sam's Club, then this morning we went to Wal-mart (yes I shop at wal-mart, do not judge me). Here was the load. I also got some extra pantry stuff for storage just in case of ice storms/ hurricanes/ other natural disaster (like tomatoes, beans, tofu etc...)

3 medium Japanese eggplants
1 HUGE carrot + 2 pounds carrots (bagged)
4 boxes shelf-stable firm tofu*
1.5 pounds fresh baby spinach*
1 pounds portabella mushrooms
3 pounds roasted cashews (they didn't have raw)
12 pounds frozen strawberries
2.2 pounds fresh asparagus (it comes in 2.2 pounds bundles at Sam's Club)
2 pounds bananas
12 pounds Japanese sweet potatoes (the white ones)
12 oz quinoa
1 pound wild rice
7 fresh dates

*oranges, kiwis, apples and limes*

9oz dried figs (I'd never had them before and they are awesome!)
2 loaves Ener-g Tapioca Bread
4oz liquid plain Stevia (they didn't have powdered)
10 oranges (on sale for only 32 cents each)
2 jars (16oz) roasted red peppers
1 pound split peas
2 pounds small red beans (16g fiber for only 60 calories! wow that's a lot)
4 pounds lentils
6 cans diced tomatoes (low sodium)
4 cans tomato sauce (low sodium)
6 red delicious apples
2 limes
2 very under-ripe mangoes
5 kiwis
1 pound frozen corn-on-the-cob
1 pound frozen Sugar Snap Stir-fry (broccoli, sugar snap peas, yellow squash, green beans, red peppers, carrots, yellow peppers, water chestnuts)
1 pound frozen Asparagus stir-fry (asparagus, broccoli, yellow squash, cauliflower, red peppers, sugar snap peas)
1 bottle Glutenfree soy sauce

*pencil thin asparagus*

*giant carrot. i set my cutting knife next to it to show how big it is*

*Japanese eggplant*

*(freezer) corn, asparagus stir-fry, sugar snap pea stir-fry, quinoa, blueberries, Foods Alive Dijon flax dressing, Ener-g tapioca loaf, sesame seeds, peas/edamame, red beans, split peas + more*

Getting in your flax

2007-02-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

flaxseed flower

I read about this awesome idea the other day (I can't rememebr where), where instead of having salt in your salt shaker, you put in ground flaxseed! I thought it was such a great idea so I wanted to share with you. Just take a salt shaker (make sure the holes are big enough for the flax to get throuh), fill with flaxseed, and keep on your table (or wherever you eat), sprinkle onto soups, stir-frys, smoothies, dips, salads (top with dressing first), mashed potatoes, cooked veggies (when thy're hot, the flax will stick), abked goods like bread and muffins (before baking) and whatever you can think of.

whole flaxseed

Coconut & Curry Saute

2007-02-13T10:07:00.000-08:00

So far todays food has been great. For breakfast I made this really great smoothie. It had lots of frozen strawberries, Stevia, Vanilla extract and water. It tasted so good, like strawberry ice cream! I would've taken a picture, but I had to go to the doctor's and was in a bit of a hurry.

So lunch: Broccoli, fresh spinach*, ginger, peas, portabella mushrooms, green bell pepper, quinoa*, curry powder, soy sauce, and some shredded unsweetened coconut*. Just toss it all in a pan, cook until the veggies are to your liking. And the best topping: fresh pepper, lots of it. I was gonna add some avocado, but I figured there was enough fat with the coconut.

Spinach & Mustard Sandwich

2007-02-12T09:08:00.000-08:00

Here was lunch for me today:

A sandwich made of http://Ener-G.com Tapocia bread, mustard* (* = organic), baby spinach* 1/4 a large portabella mushroom, 1 tiny pink lady apple and 1 tiny kiwi.

Here's a slice of bread slathered with mustard and topped with baby spinach:

Here's it topped with the mushroom (lightly sauteed in a non-stick pan)

And the finished meal. Simple yet delicious.

Sesame Dijon Tofu

2007-02-11T16:23:00.000-08:00

Here was dinner tonight. I made some roasted broccoli, tossed with a 1 TSP soy sauce and some of my Sesame Dijon Tofu (Which will be in THV). The tofu is basically mustard, soy sauce, vinegar, dark sesame oil, garlic, and chili powder all mixed together and then you marinade the tofu in it. It's super good, but you gotta get the measurements right or it can be too strong. Normally I'd add some quinoa or brown rice to complete the meal, but I really wasn't hungry so...

My first post!

2007-02-11T05:50:00.000-08:00

Yay this is my first post! I'm in the process of writing a gluten-free and vegan cookbook, so I'm going to be posting pictures of things that are going to be in the cookbook, and things that aren't. I'll also post my Food Adventures! (trying new foods basically) and shopping trips, and things like that. So here goes:

For breakfast this morning I decided to make a kinda breakfast rice pudding. So I simmered some leftover cooked brown rice & wild rice, with soymilk, orange zest, ground cinnamon, and vanilla extract until all the soymilk was absorbed, then added some Stevia, and topped it with some Fruit Bits (chopped dried apricots, plums, peaches, apples, cherries, raisins and golden raisins), then served it with a side of a sliced Golden Delicious Apple and a Cara Cara Orange

If you've never had a Cara Cara Orange it's pink inside, like a grapefruit, but tastes like an orange. This was my first one, and I was a little disappointed, it was more deep orange than pink: