Got up this morning and fixed myself the rest of the nacho and walnut dips with some cabbage. Tried to get some work done cleaning up the house a little.
Made a protein shake for work--
1 scoop sp
1 t spirulina
1 c blueberries
1 c strawberries
1/4 c macadamias
1 c chia
1 c h20
Which I took in. Got off around 10:30, then hung out with some folks for a couple of hours and came home and had some grapefruit, dates and pecans.
I don't necessarily believe that you should feel "guilty" about things you like musically, particularly since they're not actually bad for anything but your cred. That said, I probably take a fair amount of shit for liking this. I don't care, though. I still do.
So today was the first day that the restaurant I work at ran brunch. You all know that I am a huge fan of LUNCH and its foods; sandwiches, soups, bento boxes. I don't much care for brunch. I'm just tossing that out there. I packed a banana, a mango/coconut juice and half a honeydew (and I already had a 1/2 jar of kimchi I'd left from the night before) to cover the long shift; almost a 9-5!
When I got off work, I came home, then set some nuts to soak to try some new recipes. I ran out to teach a lesson while things were soaking, then went to borrow my friend Sarah's laptop, hit whole foods for missing ingredients and some foodstuffs for the week.
At home, I spun up two recipes from Eating Raw for Dummies. I did their butternut squash nacho sauce, which tastes a lot like spicy, noochy red pepper hummus. It's definitely tasty.
However, the walnut sun dried tomato pate is WHERE IT'S AT.
1.5 C Walnuts, soaked at least 3 hours 6 T sun dried tomatoes, soaked at least 1 hour (reserve the sun dried tomato soak juice, you will need about 1/2 cup of it ) 1/4 c basil 1 clove garlic 1 T oil 1 T Nama Shoyu 2 T lemon juice
Toss everything in the blender
I ate these dips with cauliflower and a red pepper. Found myself downing the pate much quicker.
I then stayed up very late, laying out the new Pink Flag EP coming out on June 18!!!
Superlatives are definitely not my forte. But if I had to choose, I would probably say that this is my favorite song by my favorite band. At least, tonight it is.
Monday, Day 33
This morning, got up and finished the designing then went and got a wax for the first time in like 3 months.
Princess got back from her comps and I let her try the dips with some flax crackers, and she agreed they were both good but the walnut was the winner. I fixed some cabbage to eat with the dips, then set about cleaning up some.
I spent most of the day trying to get the house in order for a prospective roommate who didn't call/didn't show so she's out of the game. In the afternoon, I finally worked up the guts to try perfect food. It is really not as bad as everyone said it was. I mean, it is ROUGH by itself mixed with water, but so is protein powder. The worst part is the smell; it smells just like fish food, but doesn't really taste like anything to me...then has kind of an icky aftertaste. After choking half a glass down, I just tossed the rest into a smoothie with a cup of blueberries, a cup of strawberries, 1/4 c of macadamias and what was probably a 1/4 scoop superfood.
Later I had some raspberries, two kiwis and a couple of pickles. I wish today hadn't been eaten by so many "managerial" activities. It turned out to be really nice and I would've liked to have gone to the barn. So now, I squeezed some lemon and agave into some water and am having a lemonade as an evening snack. :)
day 12 - a song from a band you hate
Hate is a strong word for bands. But if I have to choose a band I hate, it's probably this one.
I love dance music. Like, truly, I have an unhealthy love for it. But, if I had to pick the song that I like dancing to most, it would probably be this, because it combines my propensity for spookiness with a love for 80s music.
Sat Day 31
raw organic (last one), pineapple and coconut water.
bought raspberries, a pure cherry and coconut water at trader joe's.
Ate kimchi at restaurant job, left half for Sunday morning shift.
Honeydew after work.
SO exhausted.
day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep
I went to sleep listening to this album (and therefore, most of this song) every night for about a year. I still call it my "migraine" record, because it always makes me feel relaxed
This morning I got up much later than I anticipated (I had hoped to get my car mirror fixed before I went to the gym) but instead just got up, made breakfast:
1 scoop sunwarrior
1/2 T spirulina
1 c chia gel
1/4 c almonds
1 c water
1 c strawberries
I'm finally getting the proportions down somewhat, so I could actually nearly drink it out of a pint glass.
I went to the gym and also brought my trainer a scoop of Sunwarrior so he could use it on the gym's "go vegan" week (since he is anti-soy). We will see, if he's used to protein powder he might like it. For me, it's not terrible, but the stevia flavor really drives me kind of nuts. I am not a huge fan of artificial sweeteners.
After I got home, I worked on some financial stuff and then had a raw bar because I had another appointment this afternoon; Pole Dancing class.
Yeah, that's right. I caved on a $15 deal on living social and bought a set of 6 classes at a studio here called Vertical Tease. So I wandered around looking for this joint for like 10 minutes, finally found it and joined into the class. We warmed up pretty easy, just a lot of bending and stretching and a little light strength stuff, then we got into it. We learned:
"sexy walk" - parading around the pole and dragging yr toes on the ground behind you (which gives you gummy toes)
"pirouette" - a slightly more complicated move where you pivot on one foot and end up with your back to the pole
"drop" - where you fall backward down the pole and land on your back (holy fuck, I got some bruises on my ass, thighs, shoulders, back and head from this bad boy)
"legs up" - which is basically propping yourself up in plow or neckstand in yoga, then bicycling your legs slowly. the teacher also did this thing that made her legs look like sea anemonies, which we all laughed at but she was like "dudes don't care what looks stupid, they are looking at what is between your legs."
"feet in" which requires you to do some kung fu, pick yourself up and get from your knees to your feet quick-like
"sexy up" which is basically standing up really slow from a touch your toes position
"fireman spin" where you grab the pole with your ankles and spin around to the ground (I have bruises on both of my feet as well as pole-burn,)
"leg wrap" where you spin around the pole, plant a foot then lift the other foot.
So what I learned is that pole dancing is way more painful and awful than I expected. The rolling around on a wood floor I always expected to be painful and bruising, but the amount of skin I left on that thing, especially off weird places like the tops of my feet and toes was truly unexpected. I have to be honest, the sort of sexy parading around and painfulness of it remind me altogether too much of what I would imagine a slave in a Dom/Sub relationship would be. So the place also offers Zumba and Kickboxing, so I'll pole dance maybe one more time in this "intro" class, but I think that it's back to kicking stuff for me. Horseriding provides me with enough stupid bruising and death defying stunts, thanks.
After class, I was basically in CH, so I went to Whole foods and got some more kale in order to make more of that awesome kale salad. It's marinating as we speak, although I may have used too much because it didn't have enough room to bruise when I shook it, but hey, I'm sure it'll still be tasty.
When I was driving, I noticed a gaggle of protestors lined up outside Planned Parenthood. I drive to Chapel Hill at least 2 days a week, usually 3-4 though. When I see a bunch of people there on Saturday Morning, it bothers me some, but I guess I'm just used to seeing the two women with no life protesting most of the time, at 4pm on a wednesday or 8 pm on weds. Seeing like 30 people outside of PP really irked me today. Women have a right to a yearly pap smear that they can afford. Women have a right to reasonably priced prenatal care. Everyone has a right to STD testing. Just imagine what it would be like if you were someone without health insurance, going to get cancerous cells burned off your cervix and a bunch of looney tunes yelled at you, spat at you, while you were going in to do what was probably the scariest thing in your life. Hell, imagine if you were getting an abortion (which, btw, I'm not even sure PP Chapel Hill provides in house. Every PP I've ever been to refers patients to private clinics for abortion services), it would still probably be scary and horrible. But for many women, so is the prospect of having a kid, especially when they are in circumstances where they need to go to planned parenthood (either because of insurance issues or age issues) to talk to someone about that kid. I swear, one day I'm gonna lose it, pull over and start a counter protest. /rant
Before prepping Kale, I went to pubquiz at the James Joyce, which is definitely not my fav pubquiz in the world, but it's better to get out of the house than watch primetime TV.
For dinner I rolled up some avo and cukes in nori, then ate some kimchi as well. Snack was some passionfruit juice.
I also ran across an amazing raw blog today...Raw on $10 a Day. Granted several recipes rely on a dehydrator (and I feel like the vitamix is a more realistic year round kitchen investment, which is why I bought it!) Some of these recipes look AMAZING though, like the pies. Holy balls, I want pecan pie.
For today's meme answer
day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere
This song will forever, in my mind, be linked to the S-Bahn, particularly overlooking the hotel Construction between Hackescher Markt and Alexanderplatz, overlooking huge construction projects in 2005. Whatever it was is probably finished by now. But goddamn, did I love this song.
Breakfast this morning was chia goodness, a banana, and the rest of my blackberries, swirled up in almond milk. Hit the gym, worked hard as a mofo. Sadly, had to shower again, but worth it!
I made a shake for work: 1 scoop Sunwarrior 1 tsp spirulina 1 c almond milk 1 c frozen mixed berries 1 pear 1 c chia 1 yellow mango
Then went to work. I got stuck at work pretty late and ended up missing most of the Hammer No More the Fingers CD release party for Black Shark. You should check it out, though, because it's a good record. I listened to like 3 tracks on the way home and have heard tons more at shows all the time :)
I had half canteloupe and a few nuts for post work/hammer show snack and am now just enjoying that I'm not on my feet anymore.
Oh, and continuing my meme: Day 02 - your least favorite song
This is an easy pick. Not because I love so many songs (which I do) or because I hate so many (also true) but because this song comes with a story. A story that ended in disciplinary action. This song is sincerely torture. It is my Clockwork Orange style rehab thing. And when I was at summercamp, someone chose it as the song my bunk would do a dance to. I may or may not have damaged the La Bouche single. I plead the fifth.
Today I got up and attempted a recipe from CIG Eating Raw. It is a carrot ginger soup. I ended up tweaking the recipe a little because after I made it, it was bland.
7-8 Carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces 1 c h20 1/2 c macadamia nuts 1/2 avocado 2 T ginger 2 tsp nama shoyu 1 T lemon juice 1/2 tsp curry powder 1 tsp dill 1 tsp garlic 1/4 tsp cayenne 1/2 tsp salt few grinds of black pepper
I spun the big stuff (nuts, carrots, water) first to grind them down, then added the rest as it went on.
The soup is a sort of curry color, bright yellow and not the greatest consistency, but it's fairly tasty. It's best right out of the vitamix when it's just a little hotter than room temperature. I garnished with a little olive oil, which also helped the flavor I think. I might have added a little too much dill and a little too much garlic but I still feel like the soup is missing something.
I finished the grapefruit before showertime.
Later, I headed out to see Darren Hanlon at Casbah in their inaugural quiet show series. It was nice, he sang unamplified and played Punk's Not Dead as I requested, following it with an even more exciting quick verse of Anarchy in the UK! Videos forthcoming.
I finally broke down, tired of making food, and bought guacamole at Cosmic last night so I would have a snack. I mixed it with bean sprouts and then ate it in cabbage tacos.
On another note, my amazingly talented friend Rusty Sutton is the 30 day song challenge and I'm a big fat copycat, so I'm going to follow along his footsteps.
Day 1: My Favorite Song
I struggled a lot with what I would really consider my favorite song. Owing to overall plays, though, the convergence of several things I enjoy (dance grooves, noise rock, post-punk and ambient noise) and the fact that it is associated, forever, in my mind with going for long walks, I hereby nominate Ghinzu - Blow.
Today was the bear day at work; got up and headed to work. Snacked on a raw organic bar on the way over, then had several students in a row cancel, so I made a salad at the Whole Foods salad bar, tossed some guac on it and chomped away.
After teaching, I headed to the restaurant job. I brought a Pure blueberry bar and a pint of kumquats. Note; it is very hard to eat a whole pint of kumquats in one sitting. The sourness eventually started to irritate my stomach a little I think.
Tried Kevita, which is like an off brand kombucha. It is weird. I got the mango coconut flavor and it tasted sort of thick and slimy. I wouldn't recommend it, even though it is cheaper than kombucha.
Made kelp lasagna with the sun dried tomato sauce and cashew cheese. Kelp noodles are disgusting. They have the texture of the crunchy bits in seaweed salad. Alternately, think severely undercooked spaghetti. They also have that weird "packaged in some kind of preservative juice" seaweed flavor (kind of like the shirataki noodles) that I really couldn't get past. I cut up half a cantaloupe instead and ate that. Waste of good sauce. :(
Sunday Day 19
First meal was cabbage and dip. I didn't have to work in the morning, so I busted open my chocolate flavored Sunwarrior protein. Sunwarrior is a raw vegan protein powder that had the best rating of all the ones I looked at, has a complete amino acid profile and packs 20g of protein into a shake, which is probably quadruples my protein intake for the day.
The shake I made was:
1 scoop protein
1 tsp spirulina
1/2 c blueberries
1 banana
1 c almond milk
It wasn't bad just a little too sweet. The visual aspect was very unappealing; kind of a greyish sludge with black speckles in it. I sucked it down over the course of a night's work, then had the other half of the cantaloupe and some kimchi.
Monday. Day 20
Cherry Pure bar for breakfast, then went to do the major shop; I'm sick of a bunch of food so I ran through Goneraw.com and my Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw for inspiration. Cukes are nowhere!!!! How the fuck can I make pickles?
Lunch was another protein shake:
1 scoop sunwarrior
1 c almond milk
1 c fresh blackberries
1 tsp spirulina
The shake was slightly better, and a slightly more purple hue.
While I spun the shake, I tossed together some guacamole and cut it down with peas. Sadly, I think I overused the peas, so it's a little too sweet. I ate it with crudite and Raw One flax crackers. They are pretty much exactly what I remember of raw crackers (crawkers!) which is to say satisfying, but sort of weirdly slimy from whatever they use to hold the cracker together. I also picked up a new type of Rhythm Chips; the bombay curry ones. Sadly, Whole Foods no longer had the other kinds. I missed the nachos :(
I also tossed together this green pea and almond dip recipe tonight. It was not really delicious. Maybe it would be better blended in vitamix, but here was just sort of minced and the consistency of quinoa or something. I quartered a red pepper and put the mixture into the quarters.
Tuesday, Day 21
Nearly halfway there!
This morning I got up, scarfed a banana and some coconut water then headed to the barn. I was able to jump Poncho, the little white pony on my own (outside of a lesson!) for the first time and even though the footing was lousy and I didn't know how much to do with him, we had a good time. Also took out Nissa, my old lady, who was also a good girl, although sort of lost it toward the end, which is fine. We were just hacking, so no real danger.
When I came home, I finally NAILED the protein shake!
1 scoop powder,
1/2 T spirulina,
1 mango
1 c chia gel
1 c almond milk
1 c blueberries
It actually tastes GOOD. Like jello pudding cups. Well, maybe not quite, but very similar. The Chia gives it a pudding quality I think. Tastes for real like chocolate pudding.
Wednesday, Day 22
For breakfast, had chia goodness with banana, a few blackberries and almond milk.
Made a shake:
1 scoop sunwarrior
1/2 T spirulina
1 c grapes
1 c almond milk
1 c chia
1 mango.
It was not bad. Filling enough and healthy feeling. We played a rock show with Turbo Fruits and Pujol (more information on that at the Pink Flag blog). Playing rock and roll without drinking is rough and stuff.
Had an apple, then came home and had a few cashews, then tried to eat a grapefruit and got tired halfway through so gave up and went to sleep.
I made raw granola, chia, banana and blueberry cereal for breakfast. I was gonna add almond milk, but it has separated and looks icky. The raw granola, btw, is tasty, especially after the chia gel softens it up.
Dinner at work was the leftover shake from day 12 and tomatoes.
Snack was cashews, pecan and grapes.
Weds, day 15:
I accidentally skipped breakfast, so ended up stealing blueberries from the kitchen for my breakfast. I definitely hadn't been eating enough because I kind of had that hunger headache feeling.
I hit up Whole Foods and picked up some guacamole and salsa to mix together (feeling so lazy) for snack. I peeled and chopped up some carrots and celery to eat with the guac, but also bought some kale chips (that were super expensive, but REALLY good) at whole foods by Rhythm Organic. I tried the "nacho" flavor because it had the most vitamin A but am excited to try the rest.
After teaching, I came home and spun together a new slightly tastier shake:1/2 cantaloupe
1 mango
1/2 c blueberries
1 c cabbage
12 oz coconut water
1 tsp spirulina powder
Drank half of it and had a pure apple cinnamon bar for dinner, went to quiz and lost it :(
It started pouring on the way home, so I sat in my car and listened to Room on tape until the rain let up, then I fixed myself the rest of the guac with some more carrots, celery, some cabbage and some cukes as well.
Day 16:
Got up this morning expecting my chia goodness to have arrived from amazon, but no dice yet. Instead, I tried my second "Pure" food bar: the "chocolate brownie" which actually tasted like a chocolate brownie; kind of like that Boston brand kind. It was trippy, but pretty tasty. I also chopped up a 1/4 cantaloupe, a banana, chia gel and raw granola for longevity.
I hit the post office and did some writing, then we had band practice, after which I whipped up a new batch of spinach dip and a new tub of cashew cheese (fermenting as we speak). After practice, I also noticed my Sun Warrior protein, chia goodness and kale noodles had arrived from amazon. I also went to drink some almond milk but it was all cheesy and curdled so I dumped it and set some almonds to soak for tomorrow's breakfast.
For dinner I made cabbage and cukes to eat with the spinach dip (which is really so much better after the onion has had a day to mellow out, but I'm hungry and sick of eating bar-food) and some passionfruit-grape juice and watching grey's anatomy because I totally without a doubt have a vagina.
In other news, I have now tried all of the Raw Revolution bars and actually kind of like their little bite sized awesomeness; theyre great for a little something sweet or a pick me up (and I feel like my supply is limitless). The best flavor by far is the chocolate coconut, which tastes kind of like a mounds bar. I still like the spirulina second best and all the rest are sort of whatever.
I have also been relying on the Raw Organic bars for snackeroos, which are okay but taste sort of like glue to me (I have the chocolate ones). Take what I say with a grain of salt; I don't really actually like chocolate. I only bought the chocolate ones because they were on sale and I'm cheap.
Breakfast (after job interview) was carrot and celery with some homemade guac (guac is easy, I tend to avoid the japs in it, but love adding tomato) especially after talking about craving it super hardcore last night. Went to the gym after breakfast and then finished off the green shake.
Instead of lasagna, I tossed together a sort of unbaked ziti situation. Zucchini spaghetti, cashew ricotta and tomato sauce. I tweaked the tomato sauce recipe to make it a little more saucy:
4 sun dried tomatoes
1 c cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 tsp basil
Process the cherry tomatoes, garlic and basil. Toss the sun dried tomatoes. Let soak for a little bit, then process (if you process too early, the sun dried tomatoes will catch on the blades and make a mess, especially if you like to use a shitty little hand processor like I do).It was really good, but too much sauce/chz for the amount of zucchini. I thought I had two, but I only had one. I was sad to waste good sauce, but I already did my shop for the week.
Later that evening, my gay husband Sean and I went to dinner and a movie. I chose this place Shaba Shabu because they have a roll there that is wrapped in cucumber instead of seaweed and rice, but they changed their menu and took it off. I asked if they could still make it, and they tried (it was kind of a mess) so I just got a salad. Sean and I talked about the whole "what are we doing with our lives" crisis and he ran an interesting idea past me. He hasn't decided yet and so I won't share it here, except to say that it's unexpected, but a good fit for him. You have my support love! <3
So yeah, they don't have the naruto roll anymore, and we went to see Cedar Falls, which was a kind of bizarre buddy movie about insurance sales. It was really cute, kind of funny (very much informed by Anchorman and other early 2000s era Will Ferrell vehicles) and starred Anne Heche, Ed Helms and John C Reilly, our favorite (or at least top 2) of the PT Anderson alumni. Anne Heche looks even more like an alien than she used to (is that possible?!) but we enjoyed it.
For a treat, I came home and made myself a bowl of the Rocky Mountain Creamery Raw Cashew ice cream. It's darker than you'd expect vanilla to be and has that kind of grainy, raw texture. I ground up some cacao nibs and almonds to put on top, as well as a few strawberries. Thestrawberries really were the treat, though. At some point, I'll make strawberries and cashew cream.
Overall I've been eating pretty well and the weight is not falling off me the way it did last year, which is a blessing and a curse. I'm still staying pretty active and probably getting more calories in because of all the work I'm doing. Either way, I feel a whole lot better than I did last lent. Being prepared is nice.
Oh yeah, also interviewed for a personal cheffing job today and didn't get it. Oh well. At least I got to wear my new Calvin Klein dress.
It was a rough weekend for foodstuffs; I worked Friday and Saturday nights and was at the barn on Sunday.
Friday, I essentially ate a raw bar, some fruit and wrapped the avocado in nori with tamari.
Saturday was a whole foods day-- I hit the salad bar and made myself a mesculin, cherry tomato, mushroom, celery, cucumber, onion, craisins, coconut flake and lemon juice.
When I got home from work, it was the Kimchi I'd been saving.
Sunday, I was finally off work, but headed out to the barn. Breakfast was a raw organic bar and an avocado. After the barn (which was awesome) I hit Earth Fare, whose raw selection is surprisingly not as good as i remembered it. I picked up some raw granola and raw cashew ice cream, both of which I look fwd to trying, but also some spirulina and made myself a green shake for dinner.
The recipe was 1 mango 2 c grapes (stems too!) 1/2 cabbage (in hindsight, this is WAY too much cabbage) 4 carrots 1 c blueberries 12. oz coconut water 1 tsp spirulina powder
The shake was kinda, well, spicy. It took me nearly 4 hours to get most of it down (but holy crap, when I put on my Calvin Klein dress this morning for the job interview the non-bloatyness seemed worth it), and I still have a little left. Overall though, I felt like it was a mega-healthy dinner.
Today (day 8) I got up and went into work where it was slow. I pounded the ceviche salad and drank some coconut water for breakfast then came home and assembled raw lasagna, using the premade "sauce" and cashew cheese as well as peeled slices of zucchini. It was really fucking good, just sayin'!
Ran to teach lessons, and was peeved because I bought these "raw revolution" bars on amazon, only to realize when they came that they're like, an inch by an inch. Not much belly filling. So I brought two of them to have one every couple of hours. As of this blogging, I've tried 3 of the 5 flavors. The Chocolate/Cashew one is VERY chocolatey, the Cashew one is good, but so far my fav is the spirulina kind. It makes me feel healthy. And tastes kinda green.
When I came home, I fixed myself a juice for dinner:
1 mango (peeled, seeded)
1-2 c grapes (stem ok)
1/2 c chia gel
1/4 c almond milk
2 c spinach
It was tasty-ish, not the best, but felt healthy enough. When I came home, I had some romaine hearts with the spinach dip. I spent like, 3.50 on this fucking Organic Girl brand shit because it's supposed to be like, washed
and clean and shit, and can I tell you something? I found BUGS in it. Dead bugs, sure, but BUGS. I am going back to Foxy lettuce, tout de suite. Fuck this boxed lettuce shit.
Day 9:
Woke up, and went into the pantry to open my Chia Goodness. They don't sell it at Chapel Hill Whole Foods anymore, but I guess the one I have has sat too long, the chia seeds attached themselves to the currants and it was gross so I chucked it. Instead, I made a chia, almond milk, raspberry and banana mix, wolfed it down and headed to the barn. After a lovely ride, I headed back to town, rolled some avocado in nori and then headed to work for St. Paddys day, bringing along a few more raw rev bars. which, for those of you who work in bars, know is not a favorite. Now I'm snackin on some cauliflower.
So today was my off-tour prep shit day. I realized that since starting this, I've already dropped like 6 pounds, probably due to both dehydration and essentially not eating for 3 days. It's cool, though, since I'm sort of above my fighting size right now anyway. Good news: I totally am rocking the regular size jeans again as of today.
I got up early, cleaned up the kitchen as best I could, cleaned up my room a little too and then hit Whole Foods for what I refer to as THE GRAND EXPENDATURE (wherein I buy a whole bunch of supplies I don't usually have, like raw nuts, chiaseeds, maca powder, psyllium husk, etc etc) and get all my shit together. So I started the day by making a carafe of unsweetened almond milk, then tossed together my ceviche chard salad, let that sit on the table while I soaked almonds and cashews for the spinach dip and cashew cheese I planned to make. In the meantime, I tossed together a quick tomato sauce.
Quickie Tomato Sauce:
appx 1 1/2 c cherry tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 T olive oil
pinch salt
1 t basil
Spin that in the vitamix. I think it would probably be better if it were dehydrated as well, but I just let it sit out on the counter for a few hours, and am putting it in the fridge with the lid ajar to thicken it up a bit.
I cleaned the vitamix, then tossed together some almond chocolate nib cookies (they taste healthy) then went upstairs to clean myself in preparation for a rock and roll show! I plan to make raw lasagna later in the week, and since the cheeze takes a day to set and the sauce tastes better if it has achance to marinate, I figured I'd use my day off to get a head start.
I came back down, made cheese and dip, then made myself a little bowl with some guac and the spinach dip and some Go Raw! crackers (holy shit these rule!) and celery, then headed to Chapel Thrill to see my favorite band from 2009: The RAA!
When I got to the 506, Dork was still there, even though she said she was going to leave. The opening band, Pepper Rabbit were pretty good and I talked to one of the guys outside, they seem super nice. They're playing SxSW this week, so if you're there.
The Rural Alberta Advantage went on next and were fantastic as always. Even Dork stayed untl they played Frank, AB at the end of the set, because they were captivating and the mood in the room was great. I went home and totally passed out.
They also played a lot of stuff off the old album, including Don't Haunt this place:
And a sweet cover of Eye Of the Tiger:
Tuesday (day 7!) I got up early and went to the gym. I'm trying to make sure I eat every 2 hours or so but I'm kinda crappy at it so wish me luck! I had a cookie before the gym, then came home and set about making vegan sushi, with the cauliflower "rice," cukes and avocado. I wish I had pickled some radishes, but I need to get my pickling pants on and get to it. Also the cucumber harvest is apparently shitty because I haven't seen kirbys ANYWHERE.
I packed some chard ceviche for dinner and headed to work, pounding the last 3 dates I had in the car for some energy, then bounced around 10:00, got home, had some celery and spinach dip, dropped the cashew cheese (which is SO tasty!) into the fridge and went to sleep!
So I worked on Saturday Night (Oct 2) and even though BCVC went into effect 10/1, the kick off party was 10/3, so as a sort of pre-kick off present, Chef Micah at the Federal let me try the BCVC pakoras a day early. The pakoras are really tasty, although Micah and I had a lengthy debate about what a pakora implies-- for me it is veggies rolled around in chickpea flour and deep fried. Later in the week, he conceded and now we have an agreement on delicious pakora goodness.So the pakoras at the Federal have received some heat from taste testers for their price. Theywere recently made cheaper, so nowthey are $9. We have also sold out of them pretty much every night they run, and I know for a fact that many of the people ordering them and enjoying them are not vegan, so get your butts over here, vegans! The chutneys are the star of the dish obviously. Micah put them in "stoplight" colors. Red is bombay red chutney, and the spiciest. Yellow is mango chutney and is milder. Green is a macadamia mint chutney and is more of a creamy sauce than a spicy chutney. You have to keep in mind that I am a huge whore for spicy food, though. I paired the Pakoras with the French Broad Rye Hopper (no longer on draft) but think the Great Divide Hoss Rye Lager would be a good complement (I like the flavor of rye with the mace and curry flavors). Now that the pakoras are priced at $9, I think they're areasonable dish (they're much higher class than your traditional curry house pakoras). I know that I may seem biased because I work at the Fed and am friends with Micah, but I am mostly friends with him because HE COOKS AMAZING VEGAN FOOD. Trust me, it was our bond during a trying time.
The Federal also is offering lime shortbread cookies that I got to go the other night. They are okay. I like shortbread cookies as much as the next person, but they're shortbread cookies.
I've also been trying to figure out new ways to use cabbage,
since it's cheap and all this eating out is not great for my budget (even more since when I'm eating, I want to drink something that is better than PBR). So anyway, I've been basically just stirfrying with tofu, eating it raw, puttin it on sandwiches. Does anyone have any good ideas for cabbage, the world's possibly most boring vegetable? I'm sick of using it as filler for soups (kinda too sweer) and if I make one more cabbage tofu scramble, I think the vegan police are gonna come pick me up. For the love of Isa Chandra, help!
Speaking of Isa Chandra, the kind of meh sandwich options got me thinking about my "ultimate" sandwich. Obviously, the "ultimate" is a toss up of the trifecta: Blossom Southern Seitan, Candle Cafe Cajun Seitan and Red Bamboo Soul Chicken. Yes, I know this is 3 versions of the same sandwich. It's SO GOOD. Honorable mention goes to anything faking a chicken parm or meatball sub. But, the other old standby of all vegan restaurants is, of course, the tofu club. Everyone has his or her version, and now kids, beer as vegan has one too!
Beer is Vegan Tofu Club Sammy
rye sourdough bread
marinated broiled tofu (Vcon recipe this time)
sliced roma tomato
mixed baby salad greens
lightlife smart bacon
vegenaise
celery salt (it's my secret ingredient).
The key is fresh bread, not overtoasting and stacking perfectly. Obviously, it's not the best sandwich I've ever made, (I think next time, I'd go with the lightlife tempeh bacon, sacrificing crunch for taste).
I'm also still working on a veggie burger recipe to be revealed at some point later in the year. It is still a trainwreck, though. Ideally, I'm looking for a grillable patty, instead of a fryer. We shall see! :)
One of the greatest ideas to hit the city of Durham since the now-defunct but still beloved Soul Good: The Bull City Vegan Challenge. My friends Eleni (a tireless vegan crusader responsible for the documentary film Seeing Through The Fence as well as tons of vegan outreach) and Shirle' (a personal chef and shameless vegan sympathizer, responsible for the awesomeness that is the vegan brunch!) had an idea to challenge a whole bunch of local restaurants to run a vegan item for one month. They'd tell vegans and foodies about it. The public would vote.
The ladies got together and posted photos of all of the competing dishes. Some of them look fantastic. Some of them are going to get their asses handed to them. (Note to chefs for future reference: seriously, don't ever give a vegan "salad" as an option when you're trying to impress us; we eat a lot of salad. it's not special food. Ditto "vegetable plates." You can make a vegetable plate, but if you call it that, it just sounds uninspired.) Follow BCVC on twitter to get updates and such. And if you're a vegan who was planning to come to Durham ever, come to Durham in October! It'll be FUN!
And today, the competition begins. I actually kind of forgot that it was the 1st, but then I remembered after I had already agreed to go to Parker and Otis for lunch/dinner. I went in and ordered the challenge. I also got a Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray (because I have NY homesickness).
It should be mentioned that P&O is a lunch option for me most of the time because the #14 (white bean spread, onion, avocado, tomato and sprouts on sunflower) is vegan if you switch the sunflower bread for sourdough and pay a $2 surcharge to get a side salad instead of the slaw (ps P&O-- this is bullshit. you should just give people a non-mayotastic salad for free).
The special (which is like #49 or something crazy!) is made up of an artichoke spread (tastes like bean paste with artichoke processed in), carrots, roasted red peppers, red onions, spinach
on a panini pressed wheat and served with a sweet corn, grape tomato and red onion salad. First thought: this salad should be part of the regular menu. I know I've already griped about it, but I will continue to do so because I hope that Parker and Otis's owners (who seem cool and nice) will read this and consider offering some option besides cole slaw! The corn salad was really nice (I love corn though). The sandwich was good. The artichoke spread was tangy and tasty. However, there were some problems. The red peppers were a little too slimy and caused the sandwich to drip when I ate it, then comingled with the paste and caused it to slide out of the sandwich. I liked that there was spinach, a good choice of green that isn't distractingly crunchy, tough or bitter, but bitter enough to stand up to the strange flavor of artichoke. Ultimately, my trouble with the sandwich was balance. The artichoke is good, but I think it overpowered all the other stuff in there. The reason it's not getting my vote for the win? Because #14 is better. And on the menu all the time. And for that, P&O, I salute you.
BUT KEEP THE CORN SALAD PLS PLS PLS. Thanks.
Overall, I'd recommend hitting up Parker & Otis this month to let them know that we vegans appreciate their support and trying the sandwich-- if you're more of a fan of red peppers than I am, you might be more partial. They also have the best coffee in town (Seriously, their iced coffee is the jam) and a very healthy selection of upscale/gourmet foodstuffs and products, as well as a decent beer selection. Their porch is a nice place to waste an afternoon reading the paper, and either sandwich (although #14 gets the BIV stamp of approval) will satiate your hunger and probably force you to finish it even though you're not really hungry anymore :).
*it is also Vegan Month Of Food (vegan mofo!) I think? Every october, right? Vegans out there in veganbloggerland?
So in celebration of the (3rd) vegan mofo in which BIV has sort of participated, here's a recipe for my delicious brussels sprouts. Even brussels sprouts haters can get down with it. It's also fast, which is one of my favorite things about it.
You will need:
a bag of brussels sprouts (like 15-20, or more, or less, whatever!)
3 cloves garlic
~1 tsp rosemary
~1 tsp oregano
~2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
Set your oven to 400 and let it preheat. In the meantime, clean your sprouts. To clean, I chop off the bottom and then peel away the outermost layer that's wilty or spotty or whatever. It will come right off once you've chopped the little root part off. Then cut in half lengthwise and drop into a bowl. After you've chopped all of them and dropped in the bowl, mince your garlic as small as you can get it (I find doing the chef knife smash 2-3 times, then finely chopping leaves you with the sort of chunky paste type thing you want). Drop your garlic in with the sprouts. Drizzle with oil. Rub the rosemary and oregano between your hands to break it up (I use fresh herbs at the end of their growing season. If using dry herbs, this works best. If using super fresh herbs, you may need to chop a little). Use water to get the remaining off your hands. Add salt and pepper (I use about 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper, but it's yr call-- taste and make sure it's salty enough!). Mix the bowl all together. Cover a cookie sheet in foil, then dump the sprouts and their herby garlic juice on it. Spread them so they're not all touching, but they don't have to be all face down or anything. Pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes (depends on size of sprouts). They'll get all caramelized and burnt at the tips and where there's large amounts of garlic and aromatic and awesome in the middles. Trust me. Oh, and if you're feeling cheeky, try adding some balsamic instead of water and cutting back the salt. Happy sprouting.
Recently, due to the heat wave and other weird psychosomatic stuff, I have had a crazy craving for Indian food. I'm admittedly not the greatest Indian chef...I tend to burn my spices, be heavy handed with the pepper and then sort of sob through my meal. I have been on the road to getting my balances right (don't get me started on the great onion puree debacle of '04) and feel like I'm starting to get there, especially with my favorite dish of all time: Channa Masala.
My Channa Masala recipe is pretty simple:
~ 1 1/2 cups dried chick peas, soaked overnight, then boiled 1 hour in salt water, dump water, simmer another 2-3 hours in new water.
1/4 c curry powder from indian store (get the kind that has turmeric and coriander towards the top of the ingredients. I am not a fan of garam masala, I find it to be too clove and cardamom heavy).
1/4 c cilantro
1 yellow onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, diced fine
1 1/2 tsp minced ginger
3-4 Tbsp tomato paste
1-2 fresh vine ripe tomatoes
olive oil
salt and pepper
Get your chickpeas going in advance. Without the soak, you'll just have to cook them longer (and vegan rumor has it they cause more gas), but leave at least 4-5 hours to get them tender as you want them. Ghee is not in my vocabularly, so I start off with olive oil. Into the olive oil, toss your onion and get it going. When it is just starting to turn translucent, add the garlic and ginger. About a minute after, get the curry powder in to toast a little. Quickly add the tomato paste when the powder starts to change color. Chickpeas and enough water to thin out the sauce so it can really get around the chickpeas. Over the next 20 minutes, cook the sauce down over a simmer until the sauce is once again thicker. Add cilantro and fresh chopped tomato just before serving, so they have time to heat to the temperature of the dish but not actually cook through. I pulled out the Channa masala twice, once for my dear friend Jeremy's going away dinner (at which he brought me some fantastic Russian Vodka) and again the next week for my friends the Machete Archive, who hung out.
The tofu saag I attempted was lousy. Used a garlic/onion/curry base, then added tofu sour cream the first time (nope!), cream chz the second (nope!) and diced tofu both times (not bad but still, not there. Any suggestions on the Saag situation, appreciated.
Let's end this post on a happy note: I attempted this baked ziti recipe, subbing ziti for penne, ricotta cheese for my tofu ricotta (viewable in my mega thanksgiving post) and mozzarella for daiya. And parmesan for more mozzarella, which was a bad call, since it was a little too much daiya at the top. It is possible. The ziti came out looking fantastic and getting destroyed by roommates and me in a manner of about 36 hours.
I bought a pineapple and cut it up, and got inspired.
I call it a Pink Escape (Pink Pina Colada)
~Waste parts of 1 pineapple (the tough ring in the center, the shavings with some of the brown holes around the outside, but not the skin. Eat the rest of the pineapple as you ordinarily would...) (OR) appx 1 1/2 c pineapple. ~1 medium to large banana ~Appx 1 Cup Coconut water ~1/2 c strawberries
Blend until smooth. Drink with umbrella. :)
This was probably the first drink I ever made that I would rate a 10 on drinkability. I pounded these in like, 20 minutes then immediately regretted it.
at work, I snacked on the rest of the pineapple that I didn't use for the pina colada. Work was nuts, but it was all good, made decent money and still got out by about 12:30. Finished off the pineapple with some Chia. Those who like shakes...MAKE A PINK ESCAPE. It's delicious!
Failure of the evening: baking bread for tomorrow. Using the "getting started" guide recipe from the vitamixI ground up some white wheat berries, made the yeast, mixed the dough and then tried to "knead" in the vitamix...which didn't work, either because the dough was too watery or because it was too hot. But nothing came together, and after about 10 cycles of "kneading" I gave up and baked it as it was. It didn't rise when I proofed it. Boo hiss. Anyone got any advice on vitamix bread baking?
So, first day of raw extension...I was kind of a heifer. Lunch was guacamole with cauliflower and some raw crackers. I also picked up some almond butter (raw) and some Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas, which I'm debating eating. Instead, I made chia with almond butter and bananas for a snack, then fixed myself a dinner of an arugula salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, walnuts and avocado with strawberry vinaigrette (my single fav thing to eat with arugula).
Strawberry vinaigrette 1/3 C olive oil 2/3 C strawberries (4-8 fresh strawberries, depending on size) 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar 1/2 tsp crushed dried mint 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp agave nectar pinch pepper
Blend until the consistency of salad dressing. Keeps in the fridge for up to a week.
Oh yeah, my pickles came out again and I noshed on them! :)
One other purchase I made, that led to a realization: black cherry juice (the cheapest unpasteurized juice they had), is gross. I think I have to come to terms with the fact that I don't like cherry juice. Something in it makes me gag. So there.
On Friday, I was able to accomplish a *little,* although my Weds and Thurs shenanigans sure didn't help my energy level. First thing in the morning, my dad called asking me how to use the "juicer" and what recipes I could give him for "juicing." When he says "juicer," he means the vitamix. I keep telling him to just kind of experiment but he wants recipes (from books) so I'm just making stuff up to give him. Sometimes they're mediocre, sometimes better. Day 38 was a decent smoothie, but I wouldn't go out of the way to call it mind-blowing or anything. Good nutritional value, if nothing else! So here's my Day 38 smoothie: 1/2 C almond milk 1/2 C water 1 banana 1/4 head cabbage 1 vine ripe tomato 1/2 c mixed berries (you can add 1 tbsp maca powder)
I also polished off my cookies before heading to work. For a work snack, I packed a handful of almonds and a handful of cashews. When I arrived, I found a pleasant surprise: fresh fruit! Where I work, the security guy/backwait, Jim, often brings in candy for the waitstaff. Sometimes it is movie candy like whoppers, mike and ikes, dots, skittles and reeses pieces, sometimes it's fancy fare like chocolate dipped pretzels, truffles, jordan almonds etc. This week, he said he checked the schedule and saw I was working and brought in strawberries, blackberries and green grapes. Another server on shift mentioned that it would be great if we did it every week, so we were having healthy snacks instead of scarfing down 800 empty calories every night. Time will tell!
It was a rough night at the bar. A popular local fellow got married and the bar filled to the brim with people who had already had quite a few drinks. This resulted in two bar fights, several spilled and dropped drinks and a lot of running around and headache. It was sort of exhausting.
When I came home I ate my snack as well as some chia, knowing I'd have a rough day Saturday, and oh, how Saturday delivered.
Day 39: 9:15 am I arrive at the studio to wait on my lessons. I taught from 9:45 until 11, then had a break in which I scooted to buy some sheet music for my 12:30 student, as well as pick up a snack at Trader Joe's of a Cherry Pie Larabar and some pineapple slices. I spied a new "healthy" fast food place called Evos that I may or may not try. Their menu looks kind of meh.
Of course, my 12:30 didn't show up, so I waited around until 1:30 for my next lessons, then finally got out at 3:15, headed back to Durham and quickly assembled some pickles (ready on Monday) and chopped up half a cabbage, a tomato, an avocado, a cucumber and poured vinaigrette over it. Unfortunately, by the time I finished chopping, I had to be at work, so into the tupperware it went.
I scarfed it down in fits through the night, which was also ridiculously busy, then finally got to go home and immediately spooned some chia goodness into a bowl with almond milk and a banana. By 2:15 am I was losing consciousness. That's what 14 hours of work will do though!
Day 40: Well, when I started this, I thought today was Easter and I'd be enjoying some delicious bagels and rye bread and maybe a veggie burger or some hummus. Oh, so I was wrong.
Taught this morning...but was late. I was totally knackered from last night. I had to drive to Raleigh, so I stopped in at Earth Fare on my way back. Earth fare, my beloved. I picked up some Raw Crackers from the Raw Bakery. They are exactly what I remember raw crackers being like...sort of the analogue of Road's End Mac and Chreese. They have most of the attributes I miss in crackers...crunchiness, saltiness...but then weird things I don't want or need (like a sort of fatty oily flavor, a crumbliness from being made of seeds). I am still grateful for their existence and will eat them with guac as soon as I can get to it. I also put away another one of those Raw Organic bars for some energy while I prepped myself a raw sushi salad...I'm working out a dressing recipe which I'll share as soon as it's good enough *to* share. It was tasty but a little salty and definitely too thick to be a dressing.
So I retried almond milk now that I got a nut milk bag and I can say with authority: NEVER MAKE ALMOND MILK WITHOUT A MILK BAG. It's ridiculous. Wonderful.
Not wanting to waste almond meal, I pulled together a quick recipe for raw cookies.
Raw Thumbprint Dough Cookies ~1 cup (the leftover from making almond milk) almond meal (still wet is ok!) 1 tsp maca powder 1 tsp raw cacao nibs 1 banana, mashed 1/2 tsp psyllium husk 1/2 c mulberries 8-10 raspberries agave nectar/maple syrup/honey
Mash almond meal with banana, maca, and psillium. Add cacao nibs and mulberries, mix well, then form into balls. Press into small discs, place a dot of syrup on top to hold a raspberry in place (a little syrup on top too if you like) then enjoy! :)
I also made some chia gel with coconut water instead of regular water to make a sort of chia "jello." For lunch, I polished off the rest of my Go Raw granola with some almond milk and some white Chia. Obviously, I got a few fun things in the mail yesterday, one of which was chia. Chia is a south american seed, a big component in "chia goodness" and has a light, nutty flavor on its own and a tapioca-like consistency. I've been eating the Chia Goodness cereal, but also dropping chia seeds into other food. Aside from being very filling, it also has lots of soluble fiber, water (from the absorption) and beneficial fats. I also got some psyllium husk powder which I'm going to try and get into my body to promote that soluble fiber stuff. Lastly, I ordered some maca powder and cacao nibs.
Me and Mississippi played tennis on what was a beautiful day (intermittent winds, 78 degrees, sunny). Then I came home and planted some raspberry bushes. For dinner, I made raw spaghetti with sauce. I processed some sun dried tomatoes and walnuts into the sauce, but for some reason really wasn't feeling it, so I mixed up an alfalfa sprout, tomato and avocado salad with some balsamic vinaigrette and ate that.
I went to see Free Electric State and Veelee at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh. I have not seen either band since last year, and while both were good, I was straight blown away by Veelee's somewhat anthropological approach to music. From Ginger's drumming paraphernalia (maracas, noisemakers etc) to Matt's almost digeridoo pedaltones, to the wordless vocalizing that permeates so many of their songs. I can't really describe the music except that it is turquoise and entrancing.
Listened to some of our new tracks on the way home, discussed the new Ted Leo and Titus Andronicus. Ate a grapefruit, passed out. A good day.
So, not a lot of "news" going on. It's finally officially spring. My bulbs are coming up (see the paperwhite and hyacinth) and so I hit home depot to get myself some new garden stakes, a huge shovel and scoped the veggies for this year. I'm hoping to plant some berry bushes (Anyone have any advice?) as well as tomatoes, cukes, zuccs, and leafies (I've had shit luck with all roughage that aren't herbs) as well as the possibility of an apple or pear tree, and some impatiens. Eating-wise, it was a pretty bland day. I spent the morning in the recording studio, so had a banana and some kombucha, then hit the grocery store, where I picked up some stuff and ended up punking out and just making broc and guac. Later that evening, I mixed up some chia goodness and tossed some raspberries in with it. I also cut up a mango and it was divine!
Day 35: Today, I busted out my spiralizer and made some yellow squash pasta. For the haters, I took a picture of the amount of waste. Given the amount of pasta I got (about 3 cups) from one squash, I don't think the waste was excessive. I made a raw tomato sauce of:
2 roma tomatoes 2 cloves garlic 1/8 red onion 1 tbsp "italian spices" (basil, oregano, thyme, parsley) salt to taste'
I realized after the fact that a lot of recipes call for sun dried tomatoes, but I am not a huge fan of them, so I skipped on them. I thought the sauce turned out pretty good (if a little watery and garlicky). Maybe next time I'll try tossing a sun dried tomato in as well.
Sadly, the mac cheese was kind of vile. I don't know what all those people were talking about. I had my roommate try it too and she said that it "tasted like a nut cheese would taste, I guess." It had the consistency of tofutti but none of the yumminess. So it's in the fridge but will probably transfer to the trash by the end of the week.
I've also snacked on an avocado and am fixing a snack of chia and strawberries for work. I also made a really sweet little bevvy (mashed strawberries, coconut water and some filtered water) while I sat in the sunroom with the pups and watched drag race. I can't wait for it to be smoking hot outside! :)
Monday. Day 20
I accidentally skipped breakfast, so ended up stealing blueberries from the kitchen for my breakfast. I definitely hadn't been eating enough because I kind of had that hunger headache feeling.
1/2 cantaloupe
So I worked on Saturday Night (Oct 2) and even though BCVC went into effect 10/1, the kick off party was 10/3, so as a sort of pre-kick off present, Chef Micah at the Federal let me try the BCVC pakoras a day early. The pakoras are really tasty, although Micah and I had a lengthy debate about what a pakora implies-- for me it is veggies rolled around in chickpea flour and deep fried. Later in the week, he conceded and now we have an agreement on delicious pakora goodness.So the pakoras at the Federal have received some heat from taste testers for their price. Theywere recently made cheaper, so nowthey are $9. We have also sold out of them pretty much every night they run, and I know for a fact that many of the people ordering them and enjoying them are not vegan, so get your butts over here, vegans! The chutneys are the star of the dish obviously. Micah put them in "stoplight" colors. Red is bombay red chutney, and the spiciest. Yellow is mango chutney and is milder. Green is a macadamia mint chutney and is more of a creamy sauce than a spicy chutney. You have to keep in mind that I am a huge whore for spicy food, though. I paired the Pakoras with the French Broad Rye Hopper (no longer on draft) but think the Great Divide Hoss Rye Lager would be a good complement (I like the flavor of rye with the mace and curry flavors). Now that the pakoras are priced at $9, I think they're areasonable dish (they're much higher class than your traditional curry house pakoras). I know that I may seem biased because I work at the Fed and am friends with Micah, but I am mostly friends with him because HE COOKS AMAZING VEGAN FOOD. Trust me, it was our bond during a trying time. 
