Strawanas

Vanilla Almond Special K cereal was definetley in order for this morning's AM eats. It topped it off with 1/2 of a slice banana and vanilla almond milk = deliciousness.

Money shot.

Don't get scared, but I took this pic while driving! I was in a rush so I had to finish my coffee in the car.

For lunch I had 3 slices of Tofurky on ezekiel bread w/ vegenaise, grey poupon, TJ's grilled zucchini, soy cheese slices, and sprouts. It was supa yummy.

I also snacked on some of TJ's kettle popcorn and a fuji apple.

After a busy day of school with research class, research meetings, and more research related business, I desperately needed some coffee. This addiction really needs to stop, it's just hard lately when I have been only sleeping like 6 hours a night. Just two weeks left of school left and then I can relax a bit and decrease my coffee intake.

Venti ice coffee w/ soy & SF hazlenut. It really did the job and I was able to crack down on some hw.

For dinner I had something quick and easy. 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup of peas, 1/2 cup corn, 5 of TJ's soy nuggets, and lots of BBQ sauce. It reminded me a vegan version of a t.v dinner, the colors are also very reminiscent of something from the 50's.

Later as I was typing away on my laptop my sweet roommate Cami presented me w/ a vegan muffin. Not sure about this wrappy thing on it haha, but it tasted delicious anyways!

She even let me post the recipe!

Vegan Strawanas

3 Ripe Bananas

1 Cup Diced Strawberries (Fresh or Frozen, just leave out for a while)

1 Cup of Splenda's Brand of Brown Sugar and Splenda Mix

1/2 Cup of Vanilla Soy Milk

1 TSP Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Vegan Margarine, Softened

2 1/4 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour

1 1/2 TSP of Baking Powder

1/4 TSP of Baking Soda

Dash of Nutmeg, Dash of Salt, Dash of Cinnamon

Directions: PREHEAT to 350 Degrees and grease muffin pan

SEPARATELY

1. Beat together the bananas, brown sugar, vegan margarine, vanilla soy milk and vanilla extract

2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon

3. Add this to the Banana Bowl Mixture and stir until combined. Then Add the Strawberries and mix.

4. Fill each muffin to 2/3's full

5. Bake for 25 minutes

Obsessed With Vegan Food

The title of my post refers to a comment made by Cami to me today. She asked if she could borrow my sprouts, and after telling her that she could I proceeded to inform her about how much I love sprouts because of their texture blah blah blah. She looked at me oddly and said "sprouts are just sprouts, you are just obsessed with vegan food"- duh only I would lecture about the yumminess of sprouts. My love of vegan food went a little above and beyond today.

Brekkie started with the LAST of my banana bread & coffee in this hilarious cup.

After breakfast I had to drive to UCLA to get my blood drawn. I am currently on Coumadin for blood clots that I have in my lungs which I found out about during a stay in the ICU for 9 days in December. I was in ICU because of complications resulting from a simple surgery that I had performed. Although my health is much better now, the medication I am on means that I have to moderate the amount of vitamin K that I take in (which is in a lot of veggies)- this is another reason why I keep track of what I eat everyday. My blood results were great though today and I don't have to go back for another 3 weeks, yey! Afterwards I visited a friend that goes to UCLA and then drove back to Malibu for advanced stats : / raging I know.

Lunch consisted of lots of greens & vitamin K!

Packed lunch for the day-leftovers from yesterday's meal (garbanzo & pea quinoa), TJ's herb mix salad w/ 1/2 small avocado, TJ's spicy peanut vinaigrette.

This lunch did not hold me over at all. Less than an hour later my stomach was growling. I went into the Cafe at school and picked up an enormous diet coke and Odwalla sweet and salty bar. These are the only bar options in the Cafe, but they are pretty tasty.

For dinner I knew I was going to need something to really fill me up, and what is a better option for filling your tummy than lots of carbs? Generally speaking I try to veer away from pasta, but tonight I was desperately craving fettucini alfredo. For the pasta I used whole wheat spaghetti and for the sauce I used a variation of this recipe. It ended up like this:

A little less than 1/2 package silken tofu
2 tablespoon Smart Balance
1/4 cup vegan soy shredded cheese mix
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 cup veggie broth

2 cups peas

Salt & Pepa

While i cooked the pasta I blended everything but the peas in a blender. After it was thoroughly mixed together I poured the mixture in a sauce pan, added the peas, and then cooked on low until everything was warmed. I then poured the sauce on top of the pasta. It was insanely delicious and very creamy, like it contained real butter and cheese.

I was still in munching mode so I nuked up some TJ's meatless meatballs and finished off the last of the sauce.

After dinner I was debating whether or not to go out to Taco Tuesday with friends but decided not to because I had to write a tribute speech. I ended up compromising and stayed in and wrote a tribute speech to the 60's while drinking some Yellowtail Chardonnay, my favorite ; )

Lastly, does anyone know of anyone who is selling their Coachella tickets? I was super bummed to find out that they were sold out yesterday, I've been planning to go for my friend's 21st : ( If I don't find any I may have to either try and scalp some or sneak in.... Should be interesting, i'll keep you updated.

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.