Author Archives: Emily

Peanut Butter Perfection

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I ended up being too lazy to go get a snack, to the point where I actually didn’t eat anything until my late (8:30) dinner.  In college Adam and I used to joke that I was too lazy to ever get fat, but I guess that doesn’t apply when your apartment is 5feet from a bar with jalapeno nachos!!  😀

Dinner was all about that new jar of peanut butter.

How good does that look?!?  Parsnip fries, OIAJ bases, pasta, is there nothing nut butters can’t do?

I basically made a single serving of my Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles.

  1. Place a pan over medium-high heat.  Add in half a chopped yellow squash, half a chopped zucchini, s&p, and 1/2cup water.  Cover and cook for 5-8minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. When the veggies are done to your liking place them on a separate plate, taking care to dump out any extra water left in the pan.
  3. Heat 1T evoo in the pan.  Add 1 serving cooked linguine and cook 3-5minutes, stirring occasionally.  You want the pasta to start to brown and get a bit crispy.
  4. Meanwhile, in a small bowl whisk together 2T chunky peanut butter, 1T rice vinegar, 1T tamari, and 1t sugar.  If your peanut butter is very firm you might want to give it 30seconds in the microwave before added the other ingredients.  I like to do this step in my dinner bowl so the sauce that sticks to the sides doesn’t get wasted.
  5. Add the veggies back into the pan with the pasta.  Pour the sauce over the pasta and veggies and carefully fold it in with a wooden spoon until everything is coated.

I ended up with a huge, delicious plate of food.

The balance of sweet and savory in the recipe is spot on.  If you aren’t vegan, I would also recommend scrambling in an egg at the last minute.

I may have been too lazy for a snack, but dessert is definitely on my horizon!  I’ll update later if I end up eating anything else.

*****Updated to add – we had to go move the car so I decided to make a trip to the Co-op to pick up the essentials; i.e. more vegan yogurt to eat watermelon with 🙂  I did also grab dessert.

Rice Dream Mocha Pie, done and done. 

This question has been all over blogworld recently but it fits with this post – what is your favorite way to eat peanut butter?

Good + Great = Better

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Today started off with a healthy, hearty breakfast.

A serving of Van’s Buckwheat and Mixed Berries Waffles with 2T maple syrup,

and a chopped nectarine on the side.

Perhaps not so hearty though, since I’ve basically been ready to chew my arm off all day!  We haven’t had peanut butter in the house for months (we can’t find the brand we like here) but I bought some yesterday to have for a recipe.  Apparently I missed it?

Yes, there was a lot of spoon-dipping going on this morning 😀

Adam wanted to go super early today so I ended up driving to and from school instead of walking.  My toe ring toe has been developing a callous so perhaps my feet with thank me.  We got out of class 30minutes early due to a fire drill, so that was good news.  And I was glad to leave early because I felt like my stomach was eating itself!

A rocking lunch is a great cure for over-dramatic hunger pains.  I stared with a So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk Yogurt.

I think I might have a So Delicious addiction.  The carton came with great nutritional stats and a fun fact –

This yogurt is awesome because it doesn’t pretend to be “normal” yogurt, the coconut flavor definitely peaks through.  The vanilla scent was unbelievable.  And the texture; oh the texture!  It wasn’t Greek (that’s asking a little much of a vegan product) but it was soooo perfectly thick.

Really, can you improve on yogurt like that?  Hells yes!

Oh yes that is watermelon, and it was fantabulous!  This is the sale watermelon I lugged home the other day and it might just be the best watermelon I’ve ever had.

The combination was pretty much to die for.  Watermelon with yogurt easily takes down roasted brussels sprouts and joins my top 10 foods list!!!

I also munched my way through the rest of the Siracha Peas.

And since, as I might have non-dramatically mentioned, my stomach is eating itself, I’m off to find a snack!  The plan for the afternoon is couch + South Park, so I’m leaning toward the fries, popcorn direction.

Any fantabulous new food combos you’ve discovered lately?

Double-U Tee Eff

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What is up with me this week?!  I left my camera at home again today.  I forgot to charge it last night and when I remembered to charge it this morning I forgot to unplug it and put it in my bag. 

Since I’m spending most of the day out of the house (I’m blogging from the library right now) I won’t bother doing a food post.  But since I don’t want to deprive you of my wit (ha!) I leave you with these Five Fun Facts –

1) The husband and I play the Punch Bug game religiously.  We’ve also recently started playing Vibe Slaps, a similar game of our own invention.  We are both basically black and blue at this point.

2) Over the last few months the husband and I watched all 7 seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”  We loved it, and you can in no way convince us that it was a waste of time.  In fact, we are so obsessed we are considering starting over again in 6 months!

3) The song “A Light on the Hill” by Margo and the Nuclear So and So’s is on regular rotation in my car playlist.  In spite of the repetition I cry literally every single time I hear it.  I embedded the video below and I dare you to get to the end of the song without tearing up like a 8-year-old who just fell off her bike.

4) I scored a 49/50 on today’s Sociology exam.  My professor said that was the highest score he’s given in 20 years of teaching.  Go me! 🙂

5) I recently wrote an article on eating healthy at a bbq for Van’s Natural Foods.  You can read it here.

Do you have any of these facts in common with me?

Hunger Monster

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I have a test tomorrow morning (and you know I haven’t studied!) so I’ve got to keep this quick.  I didn’t eat anything that exciting today anyways.  Mostly I just at a LOT.  I was a hunger monster today.

For breakfast I made the husband and myself smoothies with silken tofu, frozen strawberries, honey, and So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk.

How awesome is that color?

During my 2.5mile incidental exercise walk home I snacked on a vegan chocolate chip cookie.

And when I got home I tried something new to me – Rutabaga Fries!

The husband peeled and sliced a big rutabega up for me yesterday and today I baked it for 30minutes at 400*.

I’ve seen this all over blogworld recently but I wasn’t sure I’d like it so I only used part of the rutebega.  Well one bite in I hopped up and put the rest of it into the oven!

It was amazing.  The flavor and texture are a lot like oven baked potato fries but they had this awesome nutty aftertaste.  I highly recommend that you go out and get a rutabega and try this for yourself.

I’d been wanting popcorn all day long so I finally caved and bought a bag.

I tossed the lame bag popcorn in some melted Smart Balance Light and 2T sugar to make some homemade vegan kettle corn.  Mmmmmmn!

I was still hungry so I made some homemade pizza dippers.

I sliced up a mini pizza crust and sprinkled it with garlic salt before baking.  Dipped in marinara.

And for the second half of “dinner” I ate a serving of Van’s Homestyle Pancakes with maple syrup.

Not my healthiest day by far, but a very very tasty one.

And I’m out.  See you after my test tomorrow.  Don’t forget to enter my yogurt maker giveway!

A Great (Could be Greek) Giveaway

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Hi guys!  I’m sure you all remember when CSN Stores sent me a crock-pot to review.  I really appreciated all of your help with recipe ideas (even though the summer heat has put them on the back-burner) and now I want to spread the love.  CSN has offered to let me do a giveaway!

CSN has lots of specific stores.  Vanity,

Luxe,

and more.

I decided to pick y’all something out at www.allmodern.com.  You know I hit up the kitchen section, where I found this beauty –

Cuisipro Donvier Electric Yogurt Maker.  By making yogurt at home you can save money, skip added sugars, and come up with your own unique flavor blends.  I’m going to be pretty darn jealous of whomever wins this giveaway!

Here’s what you need to do to enter –

  1. Leave a comment on this post telling me what flavor of yogurt you would create first.
  2. For a 2nd entry – link back to this post on your blog and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so.

The contest runs until the morning of Saturday, June 19th.  Good luck!

Accept No Substitutes

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Tonight’s dinner was all about one of the main perks of the vegan challenge – it reminds me to cook from The Holy Grail a.k.a. Dreena Burton’s Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan.  It seems I never turn to this book unless I’m “forced to,” but I’ve loved every single thing I’ve ever made from it.

You might have noticed that unlike the last vegan challenge I have yet to eat 10billion vegan sticky pecan blondies (my very favorite thing from ED&BV, and in fact my very favorite dessert of all time).  In vegan challenges past I’ve gotten so excited about vegan baking that I ate more sweets than is normal even for me.  Since my 25th birthday is coming up in July and I recently had to buy bigger pants I’m just not quite as entranced with the baking.

I’m also making an effort this month not to buy “substitute” products.  At last glance my grocery store carried vegan options for hot dogs, sliced meat, cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, blintzes, ice-cream, cheese and more.  If I ever went vegan for longer than a month I’m sure those products would seem like godsends, but for this challenge I’m trying to keep things pretty natural.  The point of this month (for me) was more about skipping the cheese than making it vegan.  {Note – I’m aware that Allison has recently bought some of these products, more power to her, this post is NOT criticizing that!  Why would I want to insult my self-proclaimed blog twin?}

At 15days in we are officially halfway through vegan month.  I have also officially been vegan for a day longer than any time before.  This challenge has been surprisingly easy for me.  There have been a few times I’ve been jealous of what’s on Adam’s plate (like extra randomly when he ate a cheeseburger at the bbq and I almost cried because I wanted a bite so badly; I haven’t eaten red meat in 10years, wtf?!) but in general there’s nothing I’ve been wanting for.  I definitely feel like I’ll make it through to the end without breaking a sweat.

Back to dinner.  While I waited for Adam to get home I at a serving (2oz) of ww sourdough with Smart Balance Light.

Tonight’s main course was my 2nd favorite recipe from Ms. Burton, Tempeh Hash Brown Casserole.

Yumtastic!  This dish is the perfect example of Unami!  I can’t share the recipe here, but I promise that buying the cookbook is worth it for the blondies alone!

On the side we made pan steamed spinach.

All together now.

Do you ever buy vegan “substitute” products?  Why or why not?

Funky Mood to Funky Monkey

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I ate 75% of my meals yesterday out of the house, which made it particularly annoying that I forgot my camera at home.  Hence yesterday’s missing post.  To be completely honest my funky mood hasn’t fully cleared up either.  I’m betting it has something to do with my lack of exercise; not moving makes me cranky!  I know that I have so so so so so much to do this week that planning formal exercise isn’t realistic, so I’m trying to have the husband drive me as much as possible so I get the 2.5mile walk home.

Today was one of those days I walked.  Since I had 1.5hours to sit at school and read before class I get breakfast there.

Not to worry, I’m still vegan, that leftover yogurt container housed a sliced up mango and a nectarine.

I also brought a ONE Coconut Water with Passionfruit to drink.

I did not love the taste of the coconut water, although I did finish it.  I’ve loved ONE in the past so I’m inclined to think that I prefer the good old simplicity of plain.

After class I walked home, stopping halfway at The Spot to finish up a Sociology chapter.  While finishing my walk I munched on a pack of Funky Monkey Purple Funk.

Thank goodness I had a snack to hold me over for my late late lunch!

Said lunch was made as soon as I got home.

A veggie skillet of half an eggplant, 1/2cup of frozen peas, and chilli garlic sauce.

The husband just called to say he’d be home late (i.e. late dinner) so I guess my late lunch was a blessing in disguise.

P.S. It’d been a while since I had the chilli garlic sauce, insanity spicy!  I cooled my mouth down with a glass of So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk,

and some salt and vinegar chips.

Phew!

What are your thoughts on coconut water?  I pretty much adore coconut in any form.