Perfect Shade of Olive

Okay,so we are finally making some headway on our house! We bought it last August but never had any time to do anything with our horrible work schedules. Now that I am home, we have more time to get stuff done. First project is the dining room. When we moved in it had old stained wall paper and a verigated golden colored rug. We tore up the rugs and got the wallpaper off within the first month but the project was at a standstill until now. We filled in all the holes and gouges and now we are sanding it all down. Hopefully by the end of the week it will all be primered and then paint! We are going with this Egyptian Nile color(I think) by Behr. It is really hard to settle on a color because once you do the “virtual” color thingie on the website it always looks different! I know I want a dark green color,not too bluish, more on the yellow side but not too trendy. Any suggestions?

RIP Ronnie James Dio

First Peter Steele and now Ronnie James Dio-two awesome musicians gone too soon. Read Ronnie’s wifes touching tribute here.

The dreaded weight post!

I know that it is not a good thing to dwell on and talk about it too much on your blog,trust me I do. I suffer from bouts of binge eating,severe restriction,over-exercising and just giving up. I just know that over the past few weeks I have definitely gained 5 pounds and it is ALL in the stomach area. I have been working out MORE and eating about the same. I know it has to do with me not running around at work anymore and burning up all of those calories. It is just so frustrating because I really don’t want to go back to counting calories. I did it before and lost 20 pounds,but it was such a hassle. It would also be even harder now because I am pretty much eating all whole foods and no convenience foods with the calories already counted and portioned for you. Unfortunately I will be counting for the next month or so-I won’t post too much about it as to not be a trigger to myself or others-but when none of my pants are fitting I have to do something!

New Blog!!!!

Check out my new blog at http://veganwhoopies.wordpress.com/ !

Shortening the Food Chain

I watch this show on the Planet Green channel called "Future Food". It's a really interesting show where they are very inventive with food and have a theme each episode that they follow. They use a lot of those funky ingredients like gelling agents,foams and stuff I'm sure would be difficult for us to incorporate into our home kitchens,but nonetheless they are fun to watch. Last night they had a burger episode. They wanted to make a burger out of just the things that a cow eats. The ingredients were:

• corn that they charred
• beets that they juiced(I think they only used the pulp but I'm not sure)
• oats
  
• corn starch that they "disturbed" with sonic beams to mimic fat

I would love to try this burger,they were saying that it tasted like a real one. Since I don't have access to a sonic beam machine I'm pretty sure that won't be happening though =(.

So after they all developed their recipes, they took them to the streets so people could taste them and vote. Burger 1 was a regular beef burger,burger 2 was a veggie burger made with soybeans,spinach and other veggies and burger 3 was the beet burger. The winner was the veggie burger which was awesome. Everyone said how flavorful it was, I just was a little concerned because it looked like fried baby poop. Oh well,I give these guys mad props for doing things like that and helping people see how wonderful and delicious meatless food can be. I think I may do some experimenting and see if I can't mimic that beet burger...

Amazing Mushroom Barley Soup

In my attempts to reduce our food bill I have been looking for recipes that are inexpensive. I came across a recipe on allrecipes.com but I modified it quite a bit-here's my recipe-

Nicole's Vegan Mushroom Barley Soup

• 1 c. barley
• 3 c. water
• 2 tbs. margarine(I use willow run)
• 2 onions chopped
• 1 carrot thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
  
• 10 oz. mushrooms chopped
• 5 c. veggie broth(I used knorr)
• 2/3 c. red wine
  
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary

In a large pot combine barley and water. Bring to a boil,lower heat and simmer 30 minutes.
Meanwhile in another pan heat margarine and saute onions carrots and celery for 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and garlic and saute 5 more minutes. Add broth and wine to veggies and simmer15 minutes. Add mixture to barley and add salt,pepper and rosemary.

This soup was absolutely delicious. It is rich and tasted very decadent although there is hardly any fat in it. Definitely a winner. The best part is that the barley cost 50 cents and the mushrooms ended up costing around a dollar because they were marked down. Everything else was stuff I always have on hand-a perfect inexpensive pantry meal! Feel free to experiment too-white wine instead of red,rice instead of barley and so on and so on-this recipe is very forgiving.

In My Cupboard

In my (messy) cupboard:

• All natural salad dressing(Annie's that I bought for pasta salad and Drew's Lemon Tahini which is like manna in our house)
  
• salsa! I don't know why I bought this brand,I think it was on sale. We usually get Newman's.
  
• Teddy's PB
  
• cooking spray(a necessary evil til I get a Misto)
• salt and pepper-the salt is awesome primordial sea salt-I found it at Marshall's strangely enough
• Those are all beans in the back-refried,black,chickpeas,red and white.
• canned tomatoes and paste
• that little box on the right is bouillon
• also hiding behind the salt is some magic shell stuff I bought for a party-shameful =)
• On the upper shelf I keep all our grain staple stuff-bags of beans and barley,falafel mix,polenta,tvp,chickpea flour-stuff like that.
• There is ANOTHER shelf above that which has all of our noodles and rice

So that is just one of the food storage areas in my kitchen-more to come next post!

Poor People's Food

So on my last day of work one of my co-workers wanted to make a going away lunch for the whole department that I could eat(vegan). She decided she would make "lazy pierogie" which is basically a layered dish with lasagna noodles,sauerkraut,mushrooms and onions. I guess she decided against the potato version when I informed her,"no I can't eat condensed cheddar cheese soup"! Now,don't think I am an ungrateful brat because I told her multiple times thanks but no thanks,don't worry about me blah blah blah. So anyways,she went with the cabbage version. It was good,I ate some even though I am pretty sure the margarine wasn't vegan and I thought it was very nice until I heard her telling one of the other girls in the back who didn't want to eat it that it was "poor people's food"! I was honestly surprised that there are still people who are so ignorant that they think of healthy veg based food negatively. I didn't say anything because I just wanted to finish my shift quietly and get the frig out of there but I thought that was really annoying. I NEVER ask anyone to go out of their way for me and this is why. The way I eat is a huge part of who I am and when someone disses it like that it is a huge slap in the face.

Steps Toward Self-Sufficiency

We are trying to make some progress towards eventually being self-sufficient. Right now we are working on fixing up our house in town and we are going to try and sell for a profit. I quit my job so we can accomplish that quicker. Those are some of the big steps we have begun to take but the smaller ones are almost harder sometimes because it involves breaking little habits that you don't really think about. Here are some of those things I am working at right now:

• Drinking more water and tea made at home rather than soda and coffee out
• Making our groceries last longer,using stuff that I keep in the pantry
• Getting rid of cable-a time sucker and a money sucker
• Using the library more-for entertainment and information

That is just a little of what I'm working on right now. I must say that it was really nice to get up this morning,eat some fruit,read the paper,exercise,eat some cereal,take a shower and then start some house work and computer work. I'm going to work on listening to my natural rhythms and try to find the times where I am most productive. I realize that I am VERY lucky to be able to do this because not everyone has this opportunity. Here's to the first day out of the rat race!!!!

Three more days!

I have three more shifts at my job starting tomorrow. No job leads yet,no definite plans. YIKES. I know I will find a way and I know this is for the best,but it is still scary. I can't continue living a life that consists of going to a job I hate for hardly any money,being physically ill from the stress and drama that goes on there. I have to get over spending money because I "deserve" it or to "unwind". We will never be free that way. This is a step in the right direction, the first step to a better future for us.

Tofu

We eat tofu 2-3 times a week. Here is the method to my madness:

1. I buy the extra firm tofu,drain it in a colander with a plate with some weight on top.
2. When you are ready(usually 30 mins later or so), I slice it into 8 pieces and blot it well with a towel.
3. Marinate-whatever you want italian dressing,thinned out BBQ sauce or soy sauce all work well.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and use some cooking spray to coat a sheet pan. Arrange your slices on the pan and bake for 20 mins.
5. Flip and bake another 10 mins. You may want to use some more spray at this point.
   
6. Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes.

I usually just serve mine with a side of steamed veggies, but feel free to use it in a wrap,tacos whatever YOU like. After much trial and error I have found this to be the best method to get firm,flavorful tofu. Enjoy!

Vegan Meals

One of the biggest questions any vegan hears is "what do you eat"? Here are some easy ideas(and kinda the way I eat everyday!)

Breakfast:
Fruit-I usually have a few pieces first thing
Toast-Ezekiel bread is a complete protein!
Cereal with milk of your choosing

Lunch:
a heap of veggies,baked beans and toast(my favorite meal)
leftover soup or chili with crackers or tortillas
pita pocket with hummus and veggies stuffed in it

Dinner:
marinated,roasted tofu,veggies and salad
roasted tempeh, veggies and salad
zucchini boats stuffed with tofu ricotta and marinara
nachos or burritos with refried beans and homemade guacamole

Those are my most used meals at my house. I usually will snack on pickles,veggie sticks or granola bars if I need to. I drink a lot of different teas as well.