real food?! no way.
for being a ‘healthy’ vegan blog, this sure has been filled with tons of sugar and fat lately. oops. sorry, sometimes I can’t help myself and I go into a baking frenzy for a couple days… or weeks. but life is back on track and here are some of my latest culinary adventures!
black bean burger and wrap, both extremely delicious! I used Fat Free Vegan’s black bean burger recipe with a few tweaks: I subbed the rice, pepper, and onion for a slow-cooked stuffed pepper with rice and carrots that I had in the fridge. for the burgers, I made the buns using this recipe and they turned out good enough, albeit a little hard.
my first seitan! I used Veganomicon’s recipe with great success (and great ugliness). it was fantastic on an open faced sandwich with rosemary focaccia bread (also from Veganomicon), lettuce, and tomato. simplicity at it’s best!
my copy of Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen came in and I had fun with a few recipes from there. the first is the butternut squash ‘rice’ with walnuts. I let my friends and coworkers tried this and they were shocked at how rice-like the texture was and how great it tasted. I absolutely loved it as well. then I tried the sunburgers and they were… not my thing. not saying they’re bad, just not what I’m into. a bit bland also.
my very first granola! I looked through some recipes for a basic guide and then just kinda made up everything as I went along. flavor-wise it was spectacular, texture and form-wise I wasn’t too happy with. I was going for more of a granola BAR and it was just too crumbly and flaky for that. so I’ll definitely be trying again, and as soon as I’m successful I’ll post my recipe. :>
stir-fry based on Fat Free Vegan’s Hot and Sour Shirataki Noodles recipe. shirataki noodles seem to get so much flack from the vegan community for being gross and smelly, but I actually genuinely like them. yeahhhh the odor’s a little weird at first, but it’s nothing a thorough rinsing won’t get out! and once everything’s cooked and flavored it’s completely gone anyway. don’t get me wrong, real pasta is far superior to this, but it’s also far fattier and I just can’t really bring myself to eat it anymore, so I’m just glad shirataki noodles are here to satiate my cravings.
glorious cheesy scrambled breakfast burritos. these were the bomb. the only complaint I got about them was from my roommate who said they’d be better with real cheese. wellllll sucks for her. I really wish I could remember where I got my cheese sauce recipe from but I can’t for the life of me find it. well, I’m sure I’ll be making these again sooner than later and when I do I’ll meticulously write down and bookmark everything so I can share, because these are so worth it. in fact I really want one right now. or two. or four. D:
week of raw!
I made it… almost! Friday and Saturday I had coffee, because work was brutal and there’s no way I could’ve gone through a 13-hour shift without caffeine. but as far as food goes, I was good and raw for seven whole days. :>
alrighty, so here are the things countless raw sites promise you on the ‘diet’:
* more energy!
* clear skin!
* better digestion!
* weight loss!
* less risk of heart/cardiovascular disease!
the first day I was a complete zombie, but the next day I definitely felt a huge spike in energy as soon as I woke up. it fluctuated throughout the week, but I was able to function without coffee which is pretty good for me.
I have noticed slight improvements in my skin and my friends have mentioned that it’s looking clearer too. I haven’t worn foundation all week because I felt I didn’t need it.
I pooped a bunch! I now know why it’s called a cleanse; it really does get everything out of you lololololol. 
I lost about three pounds during the week! although I have a feeling I’ll gain at least some of them back now that I’m not raw anymore.
I’ll let you know when I’m 50 about the heart stuff. ;D
so pretty much all I ate was salads. but for me, it was the easiest and most efficient way to get everything I needed. they got me full fast and gave me tons of energy throughout the day, so no complaints there. I added lemon juice to all my green salads and ate my fruit salads on their own. speaking of which, I realized I LOVE fruit salads. they’re probably my new favorite thing now, and I’m going to start incorporating them into my daily diet.
I didn’t eat as many nuts and seeds as I should’ve, but honestly, buying all that fresh produce didn’t come cheap and I just couldn’t afford to spend more. that’s the major negative factor in going raw for me is it cost me A LOT more than usual.
the other problem I had was mostly bad timing. it’s been frigid here for the past few weeks, with lows of 30s almost every night. as a Floridian that’s been here for almost 15 years, this kind of weather is completely foreign to me and I don’t really have the proper wardrobe to handle it correctly. so when all the food I ate was cold on top of that, it kind of made me miserable and all week I was craving nothing but warm baked goods. 
so I think what I’m going to do is attempt this all over again in the summer, and then try to go for a month. I’m sure it’ll be tons easier then since ALL I’ll be wanting is cold foods (apparently it’s an El Nino year so this summer is going to be hotter than usual, oh boy oh boy).
all in all, I think this was a great and extremely rewarding experience. I’m now going to proactively strive to eat 100% raw at least a couple times a week, and hopefully work up to a 50% raw diet with time. it really does make me feel a lot better and cleaner. it feels awesome knowing I can eat almost as much as I want and I’ll never get that gross, bloated, overeaten feeling or the guilt that comes with knowing how many calories I’ve consumed. and the lack of mystery products in my food is also a huge weight off my shoulders. I know the food industry in America is disgusting and when I prepare my own foods that come from completely fresh produce, nothing frozen, nothing boxed, nothing compressed, nothing packaged, it’s just gives me a really nice, calming feeling.
raw lunch tiemz
I’ll be making a big post about my raw week once it ends, but for now have a picture of what I’m bringing to work for lunch today:
I’m shocked and appalled at how long it took me to realize asparagus is awesome.
ready to rawmble!
(the puns just keep getting worse. I’m sorry. can’t promise I’ll stop, though.)
lately I’ve fallen off the wagon, so to speak. I’ve been eating poorly and far too often and I’m really starting to feel the consequences. today at work I had three Red Bulls on top of two cups of coffee. that’s a little overboard. a lot overboard actually. so I’m going to put myself through a raw detox for about a week starting this upcoming Sunday. this is what I’ll mostly be consuming:
-salads salads salads saladssss
-vegetables (avocados, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, cabbage, spinach, spaghetti squash)
-fruits (apples, bananas, clementines, grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melons, kiwis)
-sprouts
-nuts and seeds
-flavor enhancers (ginger, garlic, lemon/lime juice)
I’ve seen some raw blogs and recipes talk about using salt and various oils but I’m going to try to avoid them. however, I’ll still drink caffeine-free herbal tea because I don’t really see why it would be detrimental.
I went grocery shopping in preparation today and here’s what my kitchen looks like now:
apples, bananas, and clementines!
strawberries (from the Plaza Theate farmers' market), spaghetti squash, alfalfa sprouts, and bean sprouts!
carrots, cantaloupe, tomatoes, cucumbers, salad greens, spinach, broccoli, and a big ol' hunk of celery.
and then I decided to get adventurous and try Super Cookies.
the verdict: definitely would not define them as cookies, but they’re great for snacks. if anything, they’re more like chips. but I’m not about to denounce a food based on semantics, so Super Cookies get a thumbs up for me. although I’d much prefer if they were cheaper. (I’m looking at you, Whole Foods.)
the dharma yums 