Happy New Years!

I've unfortunately been away for a while, graduating and searching for jobs! I also took some time to myself to read Dr. Graham's book "The 80/10/10 Diet." The book is all about how as humans, we should be eating mostly fresh, raw, ripe fruits, and keep our fat and protein levels at no more than 10% of our daily calories (which leaves carbohydrates at around 80%).

I set my New Year's Resolution after I finished reading the book: I want to be raw by June! I've seen plenty of diet related resolutions fail, so I know that going cold turkey is going to be too difficult for me. When I went vegan, it WAS cold turkey. Parenthetically...where did that phrase come from? It makes no sense. COLD TOFURKEY makes even less sense, but I guess it's what should be used when talking about veganism, haha. Anyways, I went vegan cold tofurkey because I knew that it was beneficial for more than just myself--the environment and the animals I was no longer consuming would all benefit as well as I would, so the decision was simple. However, when it's JUST ME that stands to benefit, it's somehow harder for me to do. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I know I do. Sigh... when did I become so selfless?

I just know it's going to be even harder to defend a raw diet than a vegan diet, so I also resolve to take exceptional care of myself so that people can't give me any crap about being sick, being too thin, or anything else that most people would automatically assume about a raw, vegan diet.

So now I really feel the need to change my blog title!! There can't be any more cookies if I go through with this. Does anyone have any good suggestions for a new title for me? I'd love to hear all your thoughts!!

Amy's Non-Dairy Vegetable Pot Pie

I decided yesterday afternoon that I missed my grandma's chicken pot pie. Not the chicken, you know, but the pot pie part. Never having made any sort of pot pie, I decided to try Amy's Non-Dairy Vegetable Pot Pie.

I loved how the inside tasted, but the outside was quite dry. Look at that picture: that crust looks moist and fatty and flakey, right? The actual crust reminds me more of a toasted slice of pita bread than a pot pie crust. I'll give Amy credit though, the filling I got looks just as delicious as the one shown in the picture.

Maybe I'm slightly biased because I have an amazing cook of a grandma. She makes the most wonderful pot pie, so I think instead of trying to find it's replacement prepackaged in the freezer section, I need to call grandma and get her pot pie recipe. Then I can replace the chicken with seitan that I'll make in this "no-chicken" broth I found at the grocery store. I really can't wait to try that recipe out now!

I'll have to give Amy's version a score of 7 out of 10. The filling was too delicious to write off just because I wasn't content with the pie crust. I know I can do better, and when I do, I'll definitely post my recipe!

Oh no! And Blueberries.

I left my camera at home! I went for Thanksgiving break and totally left it on the dining room table. I don't think that my phone's camera will do the trick for food pictures....

I'll try to make up for it with product reviews until I get back home (since the picture will be provided for me!). So here comes my first one:

Natural Choice Organic Blueberry Sorbet. I have never even SEEN blueberry sorbet, so I freaked out when I first saw it in my local co-op. I freaked out a little more when I saw that it was the last one, and of course, bought it. I TOTALLY freaked out when I tasted it, because DAMN, it is delicious. I only wish I had been in an "eating my feelings" type of mood, because then I would have a good excuse for eating the whole thing at once.

At 110 calories per serving, I wasn't TOO upset with myself, though. The ingredient list is way short, too: Organic blueberries, purified water, organic evaporated cane juice, xanthan gum, guar gum. I like seeing short ingredient lists!! Looking at their website, I see they are the same company that makes the "Full of Fruit" bars, too, which I also love.

I really hope that the co-op will get more, because it's almost exam time, and I'm going to be eating my feelings a lot for the next few weeks.

Vegan Chili

My roommate bought Fantastic Vegetarian Chili mix earlier this week, and decided that he wanted to make nachos. I snagged a bit for the purpose of trying out my vegan cheese. I couldn't STAND the texture of that cheese unmelted, but it's pretty good if you grate it down and melt it.



Voila! Vegan nachos. The Fantastic brand is pretty tasty, but I do prefer my own homemade chili. Actually, this little dish has motivated me, so I'll be making my chili and posting a recipe sometime soon, so stick around, my veggie friends.

Post Race Celebration Meal

I ran my first race on Sunday, a half marathon in the Outer Banks. It was pretty cool! Post race food they provided included yummy granola bars (as well as Power Bars, but I knew to steer clear of those!), bananas, apples, oranges, and PBJs.

That night was the REAL meal though. I'm surprised that I had the energy to stand at the stove for the 5 minutes of actual cooking that I did. While the rest of my family had grilled fish tacos, I cut up some boca burgers into strips and fried them in a little olive oil with some onions. Then I added them to a tortilla, along with diced tomato and avocado, romaine lettuce, cabbage and salsa to make Boca Fajitas!! They were so delicious.

Boca Fajitas
2 boca burgers, cut into strips
1/2 large onion, diced
2-3 medium to large flour tortillas
1/2 an avocado, diced
1-2 tomatoes, diced
romaine lettuce
shredded cabbage
Salsa of your choosing

Fry the boca strips with the onion in a little olive oil over medium to high heat. Warm the tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds, covered with a moist towel. When the bocas are browned, divide the strips and onions between the tortillas, then add the remaining ingredients. Fold one end of the tortilla up towards the center about 1 or two inches (to keep the middle from falling out) and then roll the side adjacent to the fold until you have a nice burrito shape. Don't put it down; deliver directly to mouth.

Happy Halloween from your favorite crackhead!!

Just kidding, I love Amy Winehouse, which is most of the reason I went as her for Halloween. She's a talented woman, and QUITE the character to boot. She just is also quite insane.

Amy Winehouse: This is one of my favorite videos of her performing.

In other news, PETA has a list of vegan Halloween candy that I would like to share with you. I found it on Bryanna Clark Grogan's website.

PETA’S Vegan Candy List

The following candies are considered vegan, but please double check the ingredients for yourself when you buy them. Companies can change their formula at any time without notice! But you can use this list as a start.

A note about sugar: Some of the products listed here may contain cane sugar. Most contain high fructose corn syrup. If you are a vegan who avoids refined cane sugar, please read the labels carefully and/or contact the companies that make these products and find out if they use beet or cane sugar.

* Airheads taffy
* Atkins peanut butter bars
* Blow Pops
* Boston Baked Beans
* Charms lollipops
* Chick-o-Sticks
* Cracker Jack
* Cry Babies
* Dem Bones
* Dots
* Dum-Dums
* Fireballs
* Gob Stoppers by Willy Wonka
* Goldenberg's Peanut Chews
* Good 'n' Plenty
* Hot Tamales
* Hubba Bubba bubblegum
* Jolly Ranchers (lollipops and hard candy only)
* Jujubees
* Jujyfruits
* Lemonheads
* Mambas
* Mary Janes (regular and peanut butter kisses)
* Mike and Ike
* Nerds
* Now and Later
* Pez
* Ring Pop lollipops
* Smarties (not the ones made by Nestle with chocolate!)
* Sour Patch Kids
* Spree (original, not the new chewy kind)
* Starburst (jelly beans and hard candy only!)
* Super Bubble
* Swedish Fish
* Sweet Tarts
* Tropical Source mini chocolate bags
* Twizzlers
* Zotz

Soy intolerance?

Noooooooooo!!! I love tofu and tempeh...how can I have a soy intolerance?? Unfortunately it's likely that I do. After raw fooding for about two weeks, I decided to reintroduce a few foods one at a time. I went with wheat first (because that intolerance would be the worst for me...) and that went alright; however, when I added some soy, I got indigestion, heartburn, actual pains in my upper abdomen, and headaches. If that's not intolerant, I don't know what is.

So I bought some hemp milk! It's the Living Harvest Original Hemp Milk. It's rather good, but a little too sweet. And slightly watery. I want to find the Unsweetened Original and try that. If I can't find that, I'll go back to the Unsweetened Original Almond Breeze, which I really love.

But here is my big question: other than seitan, what kind of non-soy "tofu" kind of products are out there? Wikipedia says there are tofus made from other legumes, but I don't know if I'll be able to find them unless I'm in Asia. Anyone know of some that are available in the States?