Black Eyed Peas & Potluck Parties

Waking up late sometimes means that I end up combining breakfast & lunch, creating not your typical brunch, but instead coffee and a sandwich.

Open wide! Tofurky, arugula, vegenaise, mustard, 1/4 avocado, and soy cheese in between two pieces of ezekiel bread.

After eating breakfast/lunch I picked my sisters and their friends up from school because it was one of their girlfriends birthday and they wanted me to drive them to the b-day party. Just picture me driving my mom's white Range Rover with about ten little girls hanging out of the sunroof, Black Eyed Peas blaring, and all of the windows decorated in pink painted w/ "happy birthday Sarah" hearts and piece signs. It was a sight to see. I brought them to the party at the Marriott pool and got to sunbathe while watching the kiddies- not to shabby at all. When I was done there I drove over to Raveena's house to lounge on her couch all day and watch Cami and Dru film videos of their feet dressed in comforter slippers dancing to Salt & Pepa (if this scenario doesn't make any sense I don't blame you I didn't really understand it either). Rav provided me w/ the necessary snackage.

Hummus & Crackers

Rav is Indian and I have heard that her mom makes amazing Indian food, but in the past 8 years that I have known her I have yet to try her Indian cuisine. This is crazy especially since Indian food is my all time favorite, and almost all Indian food is vegan. Finally on Friday I got to try it!

Black eyed peas w/ whole wheat rotti.

This was soooo good, I had to come back for seconds. She even rolled out the dough for the rotti and made them right there in front of me. You can bet that I will be visiting Raveena's house more often from now on.

Saturday morning I went and took my sisters to breakfast at Cafe Vienna.

I had a couple pieces of whole wheat toast with my all time favorite raspberry jam...

and a bottomless cup of coffee w/ soy milk.

A couple of hours later I was visited my gma in the hospital and I munched on an Odwalla super protein bar. This really was not my favorite, pretty bland actually.

After leaving the hospital I went and ran errands to get ready for my little potluck that night. We frequented both Walmart and Costco ( I tried lots of taste testers), and stopped by Pick up Sticks where my mom and split the buddha's feast w/ brown rice. I'm not really a fan of semi fast food Chinese restaurants, I don't like Chinese food really nor fast food, but this was surprisingly tasty.

When I got home I rushed to get the outside patio ready before everyone came over.

I provided the beverages- an assortment of Mexican beers from Costco & lemon drops.

Easy Lemon drop recipe-

mix 1 part Absolute Citron Vodka with 2 parts lemonade (I use Simply Lemonade) , and garnish w/ lemon slices.

I love these glasses (above) and matching pitchers (below) that I bought from Walmart, they were super cheap too.

Considering that I had to explain to one of my girlfriends what a potluck is, I was impressed by what everyone ending up bringing. There ended up being tons of great food. The aforementioned girlfriend brought Stacy's Pita Chips and 2 types of hummus which is always a winner in my book. I supplied lots of non-vegan food including turkey wraps, margherita pizza, dark chocolate covered acai berries, bbq popchips, and spicy artichoke dip.

My friends all kept my dietary needs in mind and everyone brought vegan food; too sweet of them. Dru made a white bean salad which was delicious, but I sadly forgot to get a pic- sorry Dru! Thank the lord Raveena treated me to more Indian food and brought Samosas filled w/ curried potatoes & 2 types of dipping sauces- a sweet one and a spicy cilantro,

Looks like I wasn't the only one w/ pizza in mind- Tara brought a margherita pizza too, but hers was a vegan one from Z pizza. Sooo yummy I have not had pizza in ages. The soy cheese may have looked a little funny but it tasted like regular mozarella. I dipped mine in the spicy cilantro sauce that Rav brought.

I bought some funny $5 nerd glasses from Walmart that day and decided to sport them. Dru likewise donned the clear pair since she was my date for the night. I'm not going to lie I wore them all today too and have been embracing my inner nerd.

We all got to meet Tara's new BF too who is a great guy, and received all of our approval : )

Rav's beau was there too and they adopted Issy as their child for the night. She was being a bit rambunctious & attempted successfully in decorating him in My Little Pony stickers.

It was a great potluck, and we all stayed up until the wee hours drinking lemon drops & chatting. Good food & friends, what more could one wish for?

Tortilla Overdose

Today was a super weird eating day for me consisting of copious amounts of tortilla &more processed food than I am comfortable with.

The day started out normal with a few cups of coffee w/ soy creamer as I was getting ready.

I should have known that it was going to be a day of odd eating habits when I craved a sandwich for breakfast.

Tofurky, arugula, soy cheese, mustard, & vegenaise on Ezekiel bread.

Although the last thing I felt like was more Mexican food, considering I think I have eaten Mexican food almost everyday this past week, I didn't really have a choice. After visiting my gma at the hospital, my gpa & mom wanted to eat lunch at Coyote Grill and I had to comply. The three of us munched on chips, guac, and salsa.

Since I wasn't all that hungry I just ordered a side of black beans and corn tortillas which I thought would be a small lunch. 5 corn tortillas and big bowl of black beans later I was completely stuffed.

Afterwards I hung out w/ my sistas Emma and Summer and we visited the community garden in our neighborhood. People and families rent out small little plots of land here where they can plant flowers and vegetables. It's a communal garden so people from the community volunteer and they have workshops where kids can learn about planting. They also have parties where everyone makes food and shares their produce : )

Aw look at the cute little strawberry

I wish my family had a garden plot, but currently all of them are taken. I'm keeping my eye out for now, and a little birdie told me that they are planning on making the garden larger so there is hope.

For dinner I made my sisters soy cheese quesadillas and french fries. I was planning on making myself something else but i couldn't resist stealing a few pieces of quesadilla from them.

Of course then I had to go and make my own beefed up quesadilla. This time w/ avo too, and a brocslaw salad on the side all doused in Tapatio.

Mmm gooey deliciousness.

I felt really sick after this meal and had an awful stomachache. In total honestly today I had about 6 tortillas and tons of soy cheese, and almost no veggies. Sometimes these things happen and I am definitely feeling the consequences right now of eating like a 6 year old all day : /

The Cure

Here is a recap of my weekend:

Friday I woke up feeling a little under the weather from the night before (too many margaritas), so I had to have my hangover cure.

Step 1:

Berocca and lots of H20. I got this Berocca from Australia and it contains lots of vitamin B and vitamin C.

Step 2: Coffee

Venti ice coffee w/ sf hazlenut & soymilk

Step 3:

Lily's burrito. Lily's has by far the best Mexican food in Malibu. It gets so busy that it's best to make your orders at least a half and hour in advance, but it is well worth the wait.Everything is made from scratch, they are best known for their breakfast burritos. This is an awful photo, but I did not have the patience to take a better one. My burrito contained beans, potatoes, rice, and avocado topped with their homemade hot sauce.

I felt 100% better after eating this and was ready for a productive day at school Afterwards I drove home to my house in Laguna Beach to spend the weekend with my family. I was so stuffed from this burrito that it was my breakfast/lunch, and I wasn't hungry until 8 that night.

Arugula, corn edamame and red pepper mix from TJ's (defrosted), and asparagus topped with hummus & a little bit of this...

TJ's Mango Ginger Chutney- sweet with a bit of a kick, I highly recommend trying it. I also snacked on some crackers & hummus.

Saturday:

I got to sleep in and woke up to freshly brewed coffee from mi madre. It wasn't done in a coffee press but it was still great (everything tastes better when you don't have to do it yourself.)

By the time I got dressed it was almost lunch so my sisters and I made a picnic to bring to the park. I had a sandwich w/ arugula, avocado, mustard, & tofurky, and they had PB & J.

Issy even wrote my name on the sandwich bag, look how nice her writing is!

Before we headed to the park Issy had a photo shoot. I was able to sneak a few pics of her over the photographer's shoulder. Adorable.

The park was lots of fun.

Cute pic of my hippie sister Summer below.

I was able to get some reading in too.... i'm reading The Girl Who Played with Fire, I'm usually not into action/thriller books but this one has been holding my interest.

I also drank some vita coco and had some hummus w/ crackers.

Later that night my family and I went out for dinner at O Sushi. This restaurant is new, but they have great sushi & I love the way they decorated the place.

I started out with a ginger salad and miso soup.

Then for my entree I had a veggie roll and a veggie hand roll. Yummy.

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