Crazy life!

So, my life has been super nuts lately. I haven't really had a chance to post any blogs because of it. This one won't be too terribly long as I haven't done much other than work lately. Working night shift (midnight to 6am) is a different experience. I really like it so far even though my sleep schedule is slightly retarded. I have managed, due to the wonderful powers of my planning abilities, been able to get some sleep in every day. I have even be able to cook some food here and there. I made hummus at 10pm the other night. Cooked the chickpeas on the stove while I showered and dressed for work and then I mixed up a batch right before heading out. I've gotten a lot of use out of my cute lunch bag that I got from Border during their going out of business sale (R.I.P. Beloved Borders). The night before school started, Leah and I made some delicious treats so that we had snacks and breakfast (scones!!) for our first week of school. I have been enjoying my classes so far. My favorites will definitely be my physiology and microbiology classes.

Today for lunch I whipped up a quick stir fry from all of the remaining veggies that I have from my CSA box. (I have so many tomatoes I don't know what to do with them!) I through in some cumin and ginger just to play around and now I've decided that I'm gong to attempt to discover the recipe for the Japanese curry I love so much at Anaba.

Now off to get some homework done.
It's great to have so little free time as I'm way more efficient with the time I do have. : ]

Stay sane people!

Vegans Think They Are Better Than Meat-Eaters

eat, drink & be vegan: Vegans Think They Are Better Than Meat-Eaters: "We do?! I'm not saying that's the case. But, in reading some of the comments from my last post (trolling excepted), I feel that's what th..."

Tea and Veggies

This morning as I was working on my never-ending physics homework, I made some tea in my cute new tea mug. : ] 

 It was a perfect little substitute for coffee. I'm still trying to cut back on coffee, and seeing as I have TONS of tea, I'm drinking that instead. Plus, I have so many different flavors that I can have a new tea each time.

For my late lunch, I went veggie crazy. This is my lunch before it went into the oven. There's tomatoes, yellow squash, new potatoes, red onion, fresh corn, and chickpeas. Those little flashes of green are fresh basil leaves... Yummy.. : ]

This was veggie heaven. I have leftovers that I can put over rice tomorrow. Healthy, low-cal, fresh, and delicious. What every lunch should be. : ]

Spicy Vegan!

Oh my gosh, I love spicy food. So, yesterday I was trying out a recipe using the Japanese Eggplant I got in my CSA box this week. It was another really simple recipe, but holy eggplant! was it deliciously spicy.

I made it again tonight using the last two eggplants that I had, but this time I made it into a more complete meal with some brown basmati rice and I added some of that beautiful red cabbage I bought from the farmers' market last week. The recipe is just sauteed eggplant, onions, garlic with some soy sauce and chili garlic paste. I added a little more of the chili paste than the recipe called for because I like my food with an extra kick. I wish I had some more Japanese eggplant so I could make this meal again. I know the picture isn't that pretty but I wanted to show how bright the cabbage is.
I was telling my roommate how grateful I am of my vegan diet because I probably would have missed out on the glories of cabbage and Japanese eggplant otherwise. Especially with them mixed together in the same dish.

: ]

On a sad note, Borders is going out of business. : / So, I went by there to pay tribute and buy my school notebooks. They are all soo pretty. Everyone knows how dorky I am about my notebooks. I also got a really cute planner that will be my best friend this fall. I'm ready for school to start and the crazy to begin. Woo!

Final night of training is tomorrow and then I'll be making that paper all next week. I'm scheduled for Tuesday, Thurs, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so I'll be doing crazy physics studying Monday and Wednesday.

Let the fun begin.

Endless Journey

Hey, so this week has been great so far. I started at Mellow Mushroom yesterday and I had a lot of fun training. This people I work with are great and I really like serving. I'll be solo next week and bringing in some much needed cash. 

Today I picked up my CSA box for this week and I got some lovely little cherry tomatoes that I decided to put on my sandwich instead of regular heirlooms. I think they add a little bit of an artistic flavor to my sandwich..

Cute, huh? This sandwich is basically what I've been having for lunch all week. Creamy hummus spead on rye bread that I got from the farmers' market last week, some spinach, and local tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers. DELISH! And so simple. A mostly local and completely nutritious meal. Yum. I used the last of my rye bread with this sammich so I'll have to move on to some other fun meals for the rest of the week.
Oh, and "What's with the glasses?" you say.
I'M GOING TO SEE HARRY POTTER TONIGHT!!!
The guy who trained me last night is taking me to see it in 3D as compensation since I don't get tips while training. Heck yeah!

I've been doing some serious brainstorming and pondering about med school and my life today and last night with Julia, but more on that when I have all of my thoughts collected in a coherent fashion.. well semi-coherent at least.

Another note about food before I end this blog.
As I'm trying to cut back calories and as I'm getting this abundance of fresh fruits and veggies every week I'm trying to find ways to cut back on really calorie dense food items. We definitely need our whole grains but I try to get them in minimally processed ways. For a while now I've really made the effort to not have bread and pasta on the regular. Not that they are bad at all if they are whole grain, but seeing as I have a lot of produce to eat, I don't really have the calories available in my diet for that. Also, much to my dismay, this also applies to muffins, scones, and cookies. I was on a huge cooking spree for a while and I was making sooo many delicious and nutritious baked goodies but even if they are nutritional, they are very calorie dense. This doesn't necessarily mean there are a ton of calories in a muffin, but I can have a much more filling bowl of oatmeal for probably half the calories. And with the fiber in the oatmeal, I'll stay full longer and that may even replace some more food I would have eaten in the future. I love food and I'm definitely not going to completely cut out all of the wonderful things in life (aka breakfast scones with a big cup of coffee), but I just really need to work on letting those be special enjoyments. If you eat pancakes every morning, they aren't as special as if you were to have a special pancake time once or twice a month to really slow down and enjoy the morning.
Basically, the most optimal nutrition and the most benefits from food will come from eating things as closely to its natural state as possible. Minimally processed if you will. This is where the idea of eating raw comes from (not going raw anytime soon, no worries). One of the other aspects of an overall healthy diet that's still considered processed is oil. A lot of time we can do without it. Most of the time it can be reduced a lot in recipes. Oil and fat are essential in our diets, but we don't need a lot.
I'm really trying to use less oil in cooking and instead just add a small drizzle of flaxseed oil to a meal to get those essential fatty acids. Again, I'm not looking to deprive myself but just to simply be conscious of the amount of oil I'm using. Eating consciously is a major part of living healthfully and losing weight (or preventing weight gain).
Other calorie dense foods, like nuts and seeds I'm going to limit to using them for flavor adders (like sliced almonds on a salad), as opposed to just snacking on them. I want the majority of my food to be veggies, then whole grains, then fruits, nuts and oils (for you omni's out there, try to think of the veggies as the main dish and the meat as a small side or use cheese as you would salt, not something to be the main flavor of the dish but to compliment and bring out other flavors). These are the things that will lead to health and weight loss if that's your goal.

So, my food journey continues and is as adventurous as always. This week I'm going to tackle some recipes using chinese eggplant, summer squash, and red cabbage among other things. : ] Can't wait.

Oh boy, I love cabbage. : ]

Bok Bok!

This is my delicious Bok Choy lunch from today. I took the picture on my phone and it actually turned out a lot better than I thought it would. YUMM! It was even better today than the other day.

Now that I have found the camera on my phone is decent I'll post more food pics.

This week is going to be pretty busy, so hopefully I'll have a lot to report later on. I just wanted to do this short post to display the beautiful greens I ate today!

Adios!

Complete 180

This week has been the total opposite of last week. Just for a quick update, I got a job at Mellow Mushroom (discount for DELICIOUS vegan pizza?! I think so!!!), I signed up for the CSA and picked up some yummy goods on Wednesday, finished my detox fast and thus, have been able to eat some fresh, healthy food!

I've been eating peaches that I got in my CSA for lunch and they are about as perfect as peaches come. I didn't think I'd be able to eat the whole bag that I got but the way it's going, it will be easier than I thought. I got a bunch of cucumbers and tomatoes in my CSA also, so last night I made a salad from The Everday Vegan that was essentially cucumbers, tomatoes, lime juice and balsamic vinegar. There were some dried herbs thrown in there (the recipe called for fresh, but I didn't have any so dried had to suffice). It was delish. I baked some lime and pepper potato wedges to go along with it. It's sounds like a tomato, a cucumber and a potato wouldn't be that filling but I had to save half of it to eat a little bit later. It was a really refreshing dinner.

Today I've been cooking the beans that I set out to soak last night. I set out chickpeas and made a simple Creamy Hummus from Vive le Vegan to dip cucumbers or other various veggies in. I'm trying not to consume much sodium and compared to store bought hummus, homemade is much lower in salt (1/2 teaspoon for the whole batch).

Tonight for dinner it will be a white bean dish (I soaked those last night too.) with roasted red peppers paired with a quinoa-millet pilaf. I love the challenge of finding wholesome dishes to prepare with the food that's already in the kitchen. I have to pick up red peppers today and that's it.

I also got some bok choy in my CSA box. The first (and last) time I had bok choy was when I first decided I wanted to have a vegan diet. I was not a fan at all. I used a recipe from Alicia Silverstone's book A Kind Diet. It's steamed bok choy with a simple dressing of ume plum vinegar and flaxseed oil topped with some sesame seeds. I wasn't a big fan and thought it was bitter, and didn't finish it. I tried the same recipe today and I LOVED it. I don't know if the bok choy is better because its fresh and local or it's simply that my taste buds have changed since I've gotten away from food that is processed, salty, and full of fat.

Anyway, I have found a new love for that simple bok choy salad and will be eating more tomorrow. I unfortunately was wary about eating it today when I made it so I only steamed like 4 leaves from the head of bok choy and I was left wanting more afterward. I'm glad I've found a good way to consume some flax oil and good greens. Woohoo!

I need to get a camera so I can upload pictures to my blog. Because I would love to put pictures of the beautiful foods I'm making and eating. Oh well.