A girl, a guy, 2 dogs and some code
Food
minty
Feb 2nd
Today was fun. I went with Jess and Jonathan to the Ron Paul rally in Townsend. We got honked at and flipped off; fingers were wagged and hands were waved in our direction. I took a few pictures. I got the tiniest piece of lint the inside of my camera. Jess made me vegetarian chili. I had a great time.
Then I decided to make soup for dinner. The Jan/Feb issue of Vegetarian Times has a bunch of soups that are pretty tasty. I’ve been looking for comfort foods and today I made myself some vegan comfort stew if there ever was one. It is very loosely adapted from the Greek Avgolemono Soup with the biggest difference being no eggs and no onions.
Vegan Orzo Stew
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 handful baby carrots, diced
- 4 stalks celery, sliced
- 1 clove garlic, finely diced
- 6 cups no-chicken broth
- 1 cup orzo pasta
- mint
- parsley
- oregano
- generic mrs. dash: garlic and herb
- lemon juice (this is totally optional and the soup is just fine with or without it)
1. Heat oil, add vegetables and garlic, sautee until slightly tender. I like my veggies to have a little tooth to them once they’re done so use your best judgment here.
2. Stir in broth. Season with salt/pepper/mrs dash. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat, cover 10 minutes
3. Add orzo, heat for another 10 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat. Let sit 5 minutes.
5. Garnish with mint, parsley, and oregano. Add a few drops of lemon juice at this point if you’re feeling brave.
The mint was probably what did it for me and it would have been better if the mint was fresh. If someone handed me a cup of this when I was sick….i’d probably hug them and cry.
blanket
Nov 16th
“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you dies each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason.â€
comfort
yesterday was cold and it was made that much worse by how shocking it was. one minute, tweeting birds and fiery trees and the next a 4 hour thunderstorm followed by the first cold day of the season.
When it comes to this time of year I start to flounder as a vegan. Where are my comfort foods? The stews, chowders, casseroles, and heaps of flesh that used to satisfy me have been shelved. Yesterday our new pressure cooker arrived in the mail and I made soup. Sadly, I had no bullion no veggie broth. So what did I do? I dug through the pantry and found organic chicken broth that was going to expire in January.
Do you know what chicken smells like to me now? A wet dog. Hugo wasn’t going to use it. I wasn’t planning on using it. It was going to go to waste if I didn’t do something with it and soon. So….in it went.
I put in about a half of a cup of mixed lentils, a full cup of pearled barley, 2 cups of broth, vegan butter (keeping up appearances), mrs dash, salt, and 4 cups of water. It took about an hour in the pressure cooker which was rad. Normally that would take about 3.5 hours to cook. I wasn’t able to eat much of it because it was still reminding me of wet canines. The dogs really enjoyed it though. At least now I know I can make some sort of decent soup without blowing up the house.
I was tired and not thinking…I’m going to donate the other two cartons to my family’s thanksgiving preparations. I need to get back to the mindset of october where I was actually challenging myself and not sort of floating through the house going vegan…notvegan…vegan…notvegan…
shy
Yesterday I met a SAHM who makes and sells soap. It’s not vegan, but her entire house smelled lovely. I asked her where she sourced her tallow because I was curious how she could stand to render it. She tells me she buys it pre-rendered and asks why. “Uhm. I read a lot of vegan blogs and was just curious.”
“Are you vegan?”
For some reason this question really embarrassed me because i wanted to say YES. I don’t feel like I can yet, though. I’m still making a lot of mistakes and still have moments of laziness brought on by too much work and not enough shopping/planning.
thanks
My extended family doesn’t know about my vegan aspirations and thanksgiving is rapidly approaching. I bought Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s new book “The Joy of Vegan Baking” and I am very excited to have things to make and take. I tried a new stuffed turk’y loaf the other night and it was ohsogood. I will be making a German Applecake, French Onion Pie, Rosemary Drop Biscuits, Butternut Squash Risotto with Sage, Mashed Potatoes, and Mushroom Gravy. You can guess where I have been looking for recipes if you’re a scenester like me.
Lots of photos coming soon.
Vegan Challenge – Day 6
Oct 6th
Day 6 was much easier due to actually having groceries in the house that I would be able to eat.
Quinoa is fabulous. It’s like a beany barley type product. I was smelling it as it was cooking and I wasn’t terribly enthusiastic because it smelled sort of like…boiling sunflower hulls. I should have taken a picture of the dish I made with it, but I was so hungry I just scarfed it down. The quinoa itself has a beautiful appearance once it is cooked. I can’t describe it.
Bug’s Quinoa Mess In A Bowl
- 1/4 Cup Quinoa (uncooked)
- Organic red kidney beans (canned)
- Unsalted diced tomatoes (canned)
- Green chilies
- Crushed red pepper flakes
- Chili powder
Prepare Quinoa (1 part quinoa : 1.5 parts water, salt, boil, reduce to low, simmer till the water is absorbed). Rinse beans, tomatoes. Put beans, tomatoes, and chilies in a dish, nuke till hot. Once quinoa was finished, add chili powder and red pepper flakes. Lump everything into a bowl, stir, enjoy.
My favorite kinds of foods are casseroles/single bowl dishes and this one was a hit with me. I didn’t offer Hugo any because I was in the mood for something muy picante and he’s not a fan of spicy food.
Grocery Shopping
Oct 6th
I had to return some really crappy books to Borders and I needed groceries soooooo I went over to Turkey Creek to get everything done.
I traded in books of suckitude for La Dolce Vegan because my 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes has less vegan recipes than I would like. It’s very good business.
At Earthfare, I found the bulk quinoa and bought a little under a pound of it. In the bulk section they also had nutritional yeast flakes which I have been wanting to try almost as badly as the quinoa, so i got a little bit of that too. Long grain & wild rice. Whole wheat couscous. This reminded me that I really need to invest in some more reusable bags. On second thought…nutritional yeast + cloth bag might not be the best option. I’ll think of something.
“Know thyself”, they say, so here are the main problems I have with shopping in general.
- If I have to buy one of something and if I have the money, I might as well buy 12 of them and save myself from having to go out soon to get another one when I run out
- I like well designed labels…a lot.
- There’s a lot of stuff I don’t have and when I need it, I really need it right.effing.then. Such as baby wipes and dried cilantro.
So sometimes I can get away with spending $20 on groceries at walmart or food lion but inevitably I will get a hair up my butt and insist on dropping $200 at Earthfare. Luckily, this does not happen nearly as often as it could. The nice thing about EF’s produce section was that everything was in good shape, clean, well organized, and it appeared to me that it was all organic. I could get organics cheaper at Kroger, but since there is a price differential between organic and non organics, most people opt for the cheaper version and the organics are left to wilt and rot. If you’re doing all of your shopping at EF, you can probably afford organics anyway and you’re going to want some pretty and fresh organics.
I’ve put my receipt for the day’s haul if you’re interested in seeing prices. I bought some Biokleen products and some holistic dog food…nothing terribly interesting. The Biokleen dishwasher powder was $8.99 and not $12+ as I had previously thought which makes it an even more killer deal since the last time I bought any was at the beginning of August and we still had some left. Also, you will probably notice that Vegan Pumpkin Pie is not marked as non essential…because it’s VEGAN PUMPKIN PIE; as essential as air.
In other news, there is a health food store opening in Brown’s Creek. If you know where that is and you know where I live you can probably guess how fucking excited I am right now.
citrus scented
Sep 27th
dogs
I feel bad thinking this, but as time goes on I realize how much easier/nicer my life would be without the dogs in it. It would be a hell of a lot cleaner at the very least. This week I have:
Cleaned the carpet twice
Lost a mop head (dub chewed it up)
Lost a doggie bed (coco chewed it up)
Cleaned up 2 Blount Todays that were strewn all over the yard (coco chewed up ours and a neighbors)
Bathed the dogs
Cleaned up puke out of Coco’s crate
Vacuumed about a bazillion times
Said “OMG NO!” about 5 million times
Mopped twice
Swept the floor twice a day, each day
Broken up 3 fights
This is all just to maintain my sanity and not drown in dog related filth. This is not including things that still need to be done like…scrub Coco’s blood off of my bedroom wall (don’t ask), hose out the garage (really, you don’t want to know), scoop the yard (my life is AWESOME), buy heart worm pills (god i hate our vet), and do flea treatments. I need a nap just thinking about it.
Then one of them will do something so precious and sweet it makes me gag. I will gladly continue to sweat and slave around my house just to have them do that a few more times.
work
work is, literally, kicking my ass. I was so tired the other night, I tripped over a curb that I KNEW was there and went straight down on both knees/shins on the edge of the curb/pavement. I was so tired I didn’t even try to stop myself other than putting my hands out to keep my face from hitting the deck. I’ve been taking glucosamine sulfate to help with my joint pains and they’re getting better but I really wish I could get motivated to work out a little more regularly. After we get this current project done, things will be way better. 16 hour days are a little rough.
veg
I’ve been experimenting with vegan lunches. So far, hummus and really sturdy crackers are the leader with walnuts and dried fruits at a close second for my favorites. I haven’t been able to even have a full vegan day yet, but I’m making the effort. Its becoming more and more challenging because Hugo is not interested in helping at all. The only animal proteins he eats is chicken and turkey and he doesn’t mind not eating them…they’re not essential, but apparently being vegan is impossible.
So I put on my “I’ll show them all!” hat and march around the house thinking of all the things I need to get straight before I start this. I bought a Muscle & Fitness: Hers yesterday to try and pump up my motivation and put me in the right headspace. The Sept/Oct issue has a lot of really excellent training regimens and cardio programs in them and I was stoked to see there was also a meal plan. I bought the mag, got home and read the meal plan. 6oz sirloin. Eggs. Turkey deli slices. Ground Beef. Whey protein powder. Tuna. Turkey breast.
They’re all rather decent portions and I am trying to figure out how in the world I am going to eat all the food that I need to keep going without being uncomfortably full all the time. Lots of people on the boards are all saying just eat any and everything that isn’t an animal and that doesn’t come out of an animal and stop when you’re full.
Like a lot of Americans, I don’t know how to eat without animal products. Its in a shitload of processed foods (which we shouldn’t be eating anyway, but we’re all pretty busy) and unless you want to eat salads and vitamins all day, every day, you’re going to have to learn how to cook food and cook it well enough that you don’t choke on your own fare. I also found it heartening that I was being wise to want to know everything I could know before I dove in…after listening to this podcast, I’m convinced that I’m going about this the right way. i would highly recommend vegans, vegetarians, and non veggies listen to this episode because it was simply frightening to me. Young man eats well, a whole foods plant based diet, develops diabetes and has high cholesterol anyway. How in the hell do you have high cholesterol if you don’t eat any!? You should listen to find out.
So I continue to study and study and study and study and study.
