Vegemite Cures All

As usual I started my day out w/ a cup of coffee, didn't include a pic though because they kept coming out so ugly (we're having dishwasher issues that leave water marks on everything soo annoying). I had some more banana bread for breakfast. Delicious as usual.

Open wide! (take note of the tacky purple chipping nail polish)

Afterwards I made myself lunch to sustain me through a busy day of studying and class. Included was a sandwich w/ Tofutti soy cheese slices, sprouts, 1/2 small avocado, & vegenaise on Ezekiel bread. Also I packed snacks including les petit carrots w/ hummus to dip them in & the last of my pineapple slices.

By the end of class I was exhausted and needed a caffeine buzz before I started studying. I stopped by Starbucks and picked up a venti soy ice coffee w/ sugar free hazelnut for me & the same for my friend, Cami, but w/ sugar free vanilla. They spelled my name right too!

Cami got spoiled twice today- coffee & then dinner. Having a blog now has been inspiring me to cook more & she has been my guinea pig, I don't think she minds too much. I used this black bean and quinoa recipe that I found, but I substituted the black beans w/ 3/4 can of garbonzo beans and a cup of frozen peas, my recipe also didn't include cilantro porque no lo tengo.

This was super easy to make and really flavorful.

The recipe made quite a large portion. I practiced a bit of self control and only let myself have 2 cups. Measuring out my food helps me from stuffing my face (sometimes).

(Notice that my previous chipping nail polish has slowly deteriorated throughout the day.Chipped nailpolish is a big pet peeve for me. I hate not having my nails painted).

I added lots of this to my meal.....

I could put sriracha on almost anything. I love all things spicy, and sriracha is quite powerful when it comes to spiciness.

After dinner though my stomach was killing me! Not sure exactly what it was. Coincidentally, I consumed a lot of things that I had purchased in Australia, first beginning with antiacid medicine. Then I drank a cup of ginger Yogi tea in this cute cup from Sydney w/ the opera house on it.

While I was waiting to see if the tea would help my cause, Ratatat helped me write a paper on Perestroika for Humanities. He is so studious.

The tea was not working so I had to turn to the ultimate Australian classic- Vegemite, I had a big spoonful on it's own. I have grown to really enjoy Vegemite and I even crave it sometimes, let me warn you though it is an acquired taste so If you want to try it just have a tini bit on toast. It is great for stomaches though and it made my stomach feel 100% better.

Monkeying Around

My late nap yesterday totally threw me off, so at 1 am I was wide awake and decided to put some browning bananas I had to use and made banana bread. Sounds sensible right? Not really the banana bread did not finish until 2:30 a.m. I found this recipe on postpunkkitchen. I altered it a bit mostly because I didn't want to go to the store and get more ingredients and because I wanted it to have less calories and be a bit healthier. Here are my ingredients:

1 cup Splenda brown sugar

1/2 cup Earth Balance, at room temp
4 very ripe bananas, mashed well
2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vanilla almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

I followed the same directions as they recommended to in the recipe and baked it for about 1 hr and 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I held off until I woke up this morning to try some. This is how it looked in the end-

This morning for breakfast I had some heated up with Smart Balance on top along with some coffee. It was really delicious, very moist and not too sweet.

I wasn't too hungry at lunch time and decided to have 1/2 of a sandwich consisting of a piece of toasted ezekiel bread, lots of sprouts, hummus, and Tofurky.

Almost every time my mom comes to visit me up at school we eat lunch in Santa Monica at Real Food Daily which has amazing vegan food. My mom was nice enough to buy me Real Food Daily cookbook which tells you how to cook every item on the menu. It includes appetizers, sauces, entrees, deserts- basically every yummy vegan meal you can think of.

I decided to make the caesar salad with blackened tempeh which I have had many times at the restaurant. I am actually not a fan of non vegan caesar salad, but this vegan recipe was delicious. I won't include the recipe because I think it would be better if you bought the book.

These are the pieces of blackened tempeh that were coated in spices, olive oil and whole wheat flour. They had quite a kick to them & were packed with flavor.

Below are the croutons which were super crunchy and very rosemaryish (not a word real word I know, but the best one I could think of).

Here is the finished product. The best part was the dressing which was simple to make and very salty and creamy.

Close up.

There was enough to feed all three of my roommates, who even though they are not vegan said that my version was better than regular caesar salad! I felt quite accomplished : )

I had sorority stuff to do tonight but grabbed a soy chai tea misto w/ 2 splendas before hand to keep me awake through Chapter.

All this talk of food has made me hungry! May have to go grab a slice of banana bread....

Jimmy's Pub

Woke up this morning and made myself a cup of Joe (ended up drinking this times three). Used this cute little cup that my sister Emma got me in Washington, D.C. She knows me too well, it has become my favorite.

I made this sandwich for lunch which consisted of Ezekiel bread, red pepper hummus, 1/2 small avocado, and tofurky deli slices.

Here are all of my eats for brekkie & lunch....

Above sandwich, les petit carrots, pineapple slices, and a white chocolate macadamia luna bar (my 2nd favorite luna bar).

I also got to use this super cute lunch bag that I purchased from Whole Foods. It was advertised as a kid's lunch bag but I knew I had to have it despite being in my twenties, plus it was less than 2 bucks. I felt a little odd buying a kids lunch bag, but the lady at the counter reassured me that she owned two herself.

Tonight I was more than happy to meet my parents again at the Ojai Valley Spa & Resort. This time we decided to dine a Jimmy's Pub which overlooked the golf course.

While waiting for my family to arrive I indulged in a little reading of the L.A Times, some chardonnay, and complementary potato chips while enjoying the scenery (i.e, heaven).

Vegan options here were EXTREMELY limited. I attempted to order hummus and flatbread as an entree, but ended up getting hummus & flatbread coated w/ parmesan cheese. I felt like I was being a major pain in the butt, but I asked the waiter if he could ask the chef if the garden burger contained cheese in the patty- I was glad I asked because it did. Officially there were no vegan options on the menu, what's a vegan chica supposed to do?

In the end I ended up ordering the crispy chicken salad, minus the chicken & chipotle ranch sauce. Basically it contained roasted bell peppers, corn, lettuce, and black beans. Sometimes you just have to make your own menu.

Don't worry though I Candace-fied it and did not put that previous hummus to waste- I topped this salad off with BBQ sauce and hummus and it ended up being very tasty.

Food porn.

Question: What do you do when you go out to dinner and receive something that you don't like?