Juice Detox Day 4

God, yesterday was brutal. For some reason I was hungry all day and had no appetite. I felt really sick after dinner and still feel sick this morning and my nasty juice concoction today isn't helping me. I don't know if it's period cramps or because I ate chips or because I'm hungry or because it's been 5 days since I ate a lot of food or what. The only reason I got through the day was the fact that I am now over halfway and couldn't quit now! I did however eat some chips because I felt sick and wanted to indulge myself in my cravings. I don't regret it. Afterall, the only ingredients were organic potatoes, sunflower oil and salt...pretty good as far as chips go!

I had

3 giant glasses of peach/pineapple juice
3-4 glasses of water (no lemon/lime today, ugh)
sunflower seeds
2 boxes of raisins
banana
quinoa with broccoli, carrot, lemon and garlic
chips

I think that's all I ate, I was really busy and forgot about eating which is probably why I felt so hungry all day. My skin is even nicer this morning and I do have lots of energy, which is good because I have to write a stupid essay for tomorrow.

Anyways. Time for my lunch juice. Gross.

Juice Detox Day 3

Yesterday was my toughest day. I felt sick in the evening and had HUGE cravings for chips or french fries. Ugh. Not to mention I'm a little sick of peeing every 15 minutes haha.

I had:

3 glasses of beet/apple juice (1 beet and 3 apples per)
4 or 5 glasses of water all with lemon or lime
sunflower seeds
banana
2 boxes of raisins
2 rice cakes
hummus with 3 carrots and a small red pepper
a salad from White Spot with spinach, some lettuce stuff that tasted like dirt, supposed dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and tomatoes. I chose balsamic vinaigrette because I figured it was a safe choice. It wasn't bad as far as salads go and that's saying something because I despise salad

I think I ate a piece of bread again to deter some of my chip cravings. I felt great all day, lots of energy, lots of pee, clearer skin, better mood but then after dinnertime my stomach started killing and I had a headache. I'm not sure if it was the amount of beet juice in one day, or myself getting over my fried potato addiction or what, but it sucked. I feel better today though. After lunch I'm halfway done!! Woot!!!

My friend I haven't seen since Christmas is coming over later and I'm super excited!! We are just bumming around watching some tv or movies but we usually just talk anyways so it doesn't matter what we do haha, we usually have a good time.

I have to reformat my computer later. It's so fucked. I'm going to install Windows 7 so hopefully all goes well or I'll be uber pissed.

Anyways. Gonna go put on my makeup now. My grandma bought me a vegan foundation so I'm hoping I love it because I'm sick of trying them.

Juice Detox Day 2

Yesterday went really well again. I woke up hungry and got a little hungry in the afternoon but I had a "big" dinner so I went to bed satisfied. The foods are really filling and I'm eating quite a large amount...so I think my "hunger" is artificial and most likely cravings for crappy salty fried foods.

I had:

3 glasses of grapefruit orange juice (YUMMY!!!)
5 glasses of water, with either lemon or lime juice
2 boxes of raisins
banana
hummus with 2 carrots, 1 orange pepper and 1 celery stalk
2 rice cakes
sunflower seeds
quinoa with broccoli and carrots sauteed in lemon juice and garlic (really good actually, might make it a regular quick meal)
3 slices of bread (bad, not on my list of allowed foods...but Jason bought a loaf of crappy white bread and it just looked good so I caved in)

Today's juice is apple/beet. I have lunch with my grandma, and it was surprisingly hard to hunt down a restaurant with an easily veganized salad, because you know, restaurants could not have a vegan salad. That would just be horrible.

Next Friday I am going to start "foods from around the world" and I'm really excited. I have to think up 10 or so countries and then vegan dishes for each. We already decided on Mexican for Friday, and we're going to eat out.

Anyways, I have to go put my face on and get my hair did. HA. I love saying "get my hair did" because it's so ridiculously lame, especially because all I do is put 3 bobby pins to hold my bangs up and spray with a little hairspray. Adios amigos!

Juice Detox Day 1

I'm very irritated today because of school. I submitted assignment 1 for one of my distance ed classes and I got an N because I apparently didn't submit the answer for question 2 when it clearly says answer "either" 1 or 2. So now I have to do question 2, which is a BS question that makes no sense. Argh. This is the worst class I have this semester. The textbook is written in this ridiculous font so I can't read it AND it makes NO sense and doesn't even have a glossary so I can lookup complicated political words.

Blah. Oh well. I don't think I'm getting late marks, not that I give a crap anyways. It's worth like 5% of my mark, but if I don't do it I get an N in the course.

Anyways, back on topic. Day 1 of my juice detox went great. If you don't know the difference between a fast and a detox a fast is where you only consume fresh juice and water whereas a detox you eat limited solid foods like brown rice, fresh fruits/veggies, hummus, rice cakes and some seeds (plain but nutritious foods).

What did I have?

5 big glasses of water, 2 with lemon, 2 with lime and one plain because I HATE lemon/lime water so I had to give myself a break.

3 glasses of juice - apple/carrot today (4 apples, 3 carrots in each glass)

hummus with 2 carrots, a yellow pepper, 1 celery stick
a box of raisins
a bunch of sunflower seeds (SO great for snack cravings because it feels like you are eating wayyyy more than you actually are)
grapes
3 plain rice cakes

I wasn't hungry at all, and my cravings for my evening snacks were easily overcome with my sunflower seeds.

Today's juice is orange/grapefruit so that should be yummy.

I managed to sneak my way into a psychology course I need for the summer semester in order to switch my major to criminology. There were two offerings and BOTH were evenings (which is fine) but SFU has this new "Nights or Weekends" program which means you must be a NOW student to enroll in the courses...and I'm not one. I was all panicked but I talked to three different people and they snuck me in to the Vancouver one (kind of far, but whatever).

Anyways. I'm going to figure out what to write for this stupid ass assignment now. I don't even understand the question!

Szechuan Green Beans and a messy desk

Hi All,

The other night I finally got around to making some szechuan green beans. They taste exactly like the ones you get at a restaurant and are delicious. My picture isn't the greatest, and I overcooked the beans by accident so they got shrivelly lol, but it still looks good!



Ingredients:
1 tbsp of fresh ginger, minced
1 tbsp of fresh garlic, minced (about 4 cloves)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp's hoisin sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp peanut oil
few squeezes of Sriracha chili sauce
green beans (not sure how many I used...a few handfuls)
lots of canola oil

To Make:
1. Heat up some oil in a pan and saute the garlic and ginger until lightly browned and fragrant. Add the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, mirin, peanut oil and chili sauce. Lightly simmer.
2. In a seperate larger pot heat up enough oil to fry your beans in (1-2 cups). Make sure it's really hot then add the green beans and fry for about 1 minute until they turn dark green. Take them out and add them to the sauce.
3. Simmer for a minute then serve.

Once you have your asian sauces stocked up this recipe is really cheap to make, and fairly quick as well.

So the other day I finally got around to cleaning off my desk, it's amazing how much shit gets lost in the pile! After midterms and after finals I usually try to clean off my desk, usually because I have flashcards, study notes and like 30403 drafts of papers mixed in with pens and textbooks and I can't find anything so I get frustrated and clean it all off. Yes, I know. I shouldn't let it get so disastrous, but trust me, any University student will tell you it's impossible to keep a tidy desk.

Here's everything useful that I had to find a place for back on my desk. I managed to do it too! The main surface of my desk is rather empty now, yay! I don't know why I had a screwdriver on my desk, I put it back in it's lovely toolbox house.



And here is my garbage/recycling pile. Haha. I'm so ashamed.



Now I can eat at my desk without teetering my plate on a pile of crap and worrying about the food or fork sliding off the plate and causing a disaster haha.

I started my 7-day juice detox this morning. I'm rather excited about it. I'll post my feelings about it as I progress. I've never done a juice detox before so I don't really know how my body is going to react. I'm most worried about snacking.

I also finally got around to transferring my computer to the external hard drive so I can reformat. I'm probably going to try out Windows 7.

I'm going to watch American Idol now. Bye all.

Shish kabobs

If I was on death row, this would be my last meal. Well, most likely. I especially crave it when it's sunny outside. The weather the last two weeks has been GORGEOUS!!!!!! I don't really like sunshine, but when it's the winter and it's kind of chilly, the sunshine is the best weather. I'm gonna go for a jog outside after I finish this, it's like 15 degrees out!

I put each type of veggie on the same kabob to help with cooking times etc. I generally use zucchini, red onion, 2 types of bell peppers, pineapple and mushrooms. To prepare, chop everything up in the same sized chunks and put in a bag with olive oil and salt/pepper and then mix it up like shake and bake. To serve, cook up a pot of brown rice and drizzle Renee's Tangy Thai sauce on everything. Talk about deliciousness.

I can't decide what looks tastier, the raw super fresh looking veggies, or the charred bbq'd goodness.




I've had this for dinner like 4 times this week, and I want them again tonight!! So simple and so good.

The only problem with using the barbeque is that Charlie is determined to get outside. We have to keep pillows at the backdoor so he doesn't scratch at the weather stripping (which is destroyed). I had the window in the bedroom open to talk to Jason while he was bbq'ing and Charlie managed to get 3/4's out of the window (which is like 4 feet off the ground). Look at this little determined face!!! I wish it was safe for him outside so I could let him out.




Poor boy! He was so hard to pry off the window too haha.

Go enjoy the sunny weather and make some SHISH KABOBS (it's so fun to say) and pet your kitties.

I'm off to jog now, hopefully my hair isn't too noticeable from the cars driving by because it looks ridiculous lol. Bye!

No Subject

I just got back from 8 hours in Fraser Valley Institution. Talk about intense!!! The prison itself is really pretty and they all live in cute houses and stuff...but we walked into the max security wing and one of the windows to the cell block was smashed and there was still blood all over it! They had been cleaning the blood up for 2 days and they still can't get it all out, scary! The max wing and segregation were so weird, the rest seemed normal to me...mostly because I regularly go to ACCW which looks the same.

I played aboriginal drums and "smudged" myself with lifers, murderers and even one sex offender. I sat beside Kelly Ellard for two hours, which was really weird. It's so unreal that someone so pretty and normal could commit such a crime, but looks can be deceiving.

Now my sister informs me that she wants to spend the night tonight instead of tomorrow night after I just got home! I drove through Mission 20 minutes ago and could have picked her up haha. I have to go clean my bathroom before she gets here, it's a disaster!!! Haha.

Peace all.

Haluski

Haluski is (as far as I know) a Polish dish that's basically cabbage and noodles. Usually it contains onions and bacon or kielbasa sausage. It's super easy to make, and besides the excess of butter and oil it's quite healthy!!! It's also a good way to sneak cabbage into your diet, afterall, how often do you get a chance to eat cabbage?



Ingredients

- 1/2 cup or so of Earth Balance
- few tbsp's olive oil
- head of cabbage, sliced (don't use the core)
- 2 medium onions, diced
- 2 cups of noodles
- LOTS of salt and LOTS and LOTS of pepper

To make:

1. Cook the pasta
2. Melt the butter and olive oil together in a cast iron skillet. Add the onions and saute over med-high heat until browned, add the cabbage and saute for about 15 minutes until the cabbage is soft. Add tonnes of salt and pepper continuously throughout the cooking process.
3. Add the pasta into the cabbage and mix together for a few minutes. Serve.

I LOVE onions, don't they look so friggin' good?



All the cats are on edge today. Around 4am this morning Bella started meowing like a crazy cat and all the cats had their tails puffed and what not. I have no idea what happened, but they're all pissy today. Alma and Bella are enjoying the sunshine though! I think Charlie gets too hot with his black, long fur though so he avoids it. Look how happy they both look in the sun:




Actually, Bella looks grumpy haha. I think she is staring down Alma in that picture.

Today I am going to "spring clean" the bedroom and closet. I was going to do the living room tomorrow, but I have a field trip to Fraser Valley Institution for women (max security prison in Abby) for my women and the CJS course. It should be interesting. I guess I'll finish cleaning the house on Friday, fun!

I was going to make a Moroccan stew with couscous for dinner...but it's so nice and sunny out I might make something else. Hopefully my veggies are still good, I've been planning on making this stew for almost two weeks now!

I'm having a debate with myself about a worm compost bin. It seems kind of hypocritical to have worms, being a vegan and all, but I think the environmental aspects and the cheapness of not having to buy fertilizer or manure that's covered in god knows what is better. Plus, I'll treat my little worm friends with love and care. Afterall, I do pick up worms I see lost on the sidewalk and move them to a nice grassy spot...people always give me strange looks, but whatever, the worms deserve to be in their habitat, not lost on some concrete slab. I like worms, they're cute. I remember as a kid I would always try to find them to keep as pets haha.

Anyways, I am going to shower. My shoulders/upper arms are sooo sore from my workout earlier so it's going to suck to wash my hair haha.

See you! Enjoy the sunshine if you live in Vancouver!!! It's gorgeous.

Creamy Spinach Lasagna

So last night I was feeling adventurous and made a lasagna. I've only made one since going vegan (from the V-con, I have it on my blog somewhere) and although it was delicious it sucked to make.

This recipe is frikkin' amazing tasting! It's pretty fast to make as far as lasagna's go too. Another bonus is that it makes great freezer leftovers! We got 8 portions from the dish.

There is no picture because I was too excited to eat it, and then after I put it into my Tupperware containers it didn't look as pretty!

Ingredients:

1 box of whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 block of extra firm tofu, pressed
1 container of herbed Tofutti cream cheese
4-5 carrots, peeled and sliced THINLY crosswise into circles
few handfuls of spinach
3 cans of tomato/spaghetti sauce
1/2 onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup veggie broth
few squeezes of fresh lemon juice
basil, thyme, red pepper flakes, dried parsley (enough to speckle the tofu...I guess a tsp each?)
salt and pepper
pinch of nutmeg

To make:

1. Boil your water and cook the lasagna noodles. Once cooked set aside until needed.
2. While the noodles are cooking, saute the onions and carrots in olive oil for a few minutes over medium-high. Add the parlsey and garlic and saute for another minute. Add the veggie broth and simmer for about 5 minutes.
3. In a bowl crumble up your tofu until it looks like ricotta cheese, add in the spices, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, nutmeg and mix it all together.
4. Add the tofu mixture and the Tofutti to the carrot mixture. Mix it all up for a few minutes until it's gooey and melted. Set aside.
5. Now you assemble the lasagna. Sauce -> Noodles -> Tofu mixture -> spinach -> Repeat. When you get to the top just cover it with the rest of the sauce...make sure it's reallly covered otherwise the noodles go hard and chewy.
6. Bake, covered, at 375 for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 20 or so.

Enjoy. I'm going to eat some leftovers now :)

Calzones

Like an angry apple tree, I throw my apples if you get too close to me!

I'm obsessed with that song right now. (Locked up - Ingrid Michaelson)

So I lied. I said I would post my calzones and like a terrible person I DID NOT!!! The pics aren't the most appealing, but here you go anyways:




So, as you can see...we didn't seal them properly and they exploded, nevertheless they were fantastic! We made six and ate them in like 2 days haha even though I had intended to have easy frozen meals hanging around. Oh well.

So, I tried to make my pizza dough linkedhere but it failed to rise for some reason so I used the pillsbury stuff instead. Still good, but not as good as homemade dough. 1 container makes 3 big calzones.

I sauteed some mushrooms and added the spinach at the last minute to wilt it.

Other fillings I used were green peppers, jalepenos, pizza sauce (link above) and daiya italian cheese. They were sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!

I can't list amounts cuz I winged it, but put all those things on the dough, pinch it together like a pizza pop and bake at 375 for half an hour or so. They freeze great too.

Now, go make calzones!!! Experiment with different toppings (or insides I guess, haha) like asparagus, onions, pineapple, olives, broccoli, whatever! They are fun.

The BSOT

I passed the BSOT (border servicers officer test)!! YAY!!!

The lady told us at the beginning of the exam that it's a 20% pass rate, so 1/5 people pass. Ugh. I got so scared and kept second guessing myself, not to mention I BOMBED the math section. Am I really expected to know what 7% of 23950.67 is? Or 567.23/89.22. Really. I'm sure I will have a calculator with me in my booth!

Anyways, I passed 2 rounds of recruitment now...so next week I have an interview at the truck crossing (I guess that's where I'll work if I get hired? I don't actually know) and if I pass that I guess I do the fitness test? I'm not sure, but that would be 3 rounds down.

I'm so happy.

Later I will post my delicious calzones!!! YUMMY!!!!!

But, now that I've basked in joy for 10 minutes I must go back to studying for midterms. I had my first one this morning and with the exception of one question, aced it.

Adios amigos.

Groceries

Hi everyone,

I went on a real grocery shop today for the first time in a few weeks. Lately we've been eating out a lot or buying a few things at a time which costs so much! You don't even realize it.

I LOVE to grocery shop. I love it more than any other type of shopping. I just love it. I love love love it.

Anyways, here is what I bought this week. It cost $191.08 which is not bad for us. We usually spend $130-150 per week and this shop is for almost two weeks AND I had to buy a tonne of pricey stuff like toilet paper and razors which I hate buying.



Produce
5lb potatoes, 5lb organic apples, 2 lemons, 2 limes, 1 lb green beans, green cabbage, celery, 1 lb mushrooms, four corn on the cobs, ginger, 4 onions, acorn squash, butternut squash, organic green pepper, organic red pepper, organic kale, 6 organic beets, 4 turnips, spinach, frozen fruit bag, tomato, zucchini, lettuce, parsley, 4 jalepenos, cilantro, bananas

Spices and Sauces
Mirin, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, basil, soy sauce (Can you tell I had to stock up on my asian sauces? Haha)

Bath and House stuff
Shampoo, deodorant, razors (ugh, so pricey), paper towel, toilet paper, cotton pad things to remove eye makeup, sandwich bags

Canned, Grocery stuff and other crap
2 cans tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, chickpeas, refried beans, whole wheat lasagna noodles, canola oil, 2 larabars, granola bars and pudding (Jasons), orange juice, soy milk, tofu, tofutti cream cheese, Alma’s favourite balls, Yves Mexican ground round, tortilla shells

Alma loves when I go grocery shopping too! I come home and put the bags in the foyer and immediately she races over and dives face first into any bag with PLASTIC. She effing adores plastic, she chews it, plays with it, rubs her face on it, she just loves it. Anyways, today I put my groceries all out on the counter which confused her so she leapt up on the counter and chewed the plastic beet bag for like 20 minutes, it was quite amusing. (And yes, I always watch her to make sure she doesn't choke herself to death on plastic)



So what am I making with all this delicious new food?

Well we had most of our breakfast foods already but we're having cereal, oatmeal, scrambled tofu, hashbrowns and toast.

Lunch is usually just leftovers. Other stuff would be sandwiches, fruit, veggies and granola bars.

Dinner this week is mainly HUGE portions of freezable stuff like szechuan green beans with rice, Moroccan curry couscous, lasagna, calzones, lentil soup, marinara pasta, tacos, corn with veggies and a grain. We'll also be eating chili and various other things I already had in my cupboard.

I try not to snack much, but I bought kale to make kale chips and I drink smoothies and fresh juice otherwise.

I have to put together a powerpoint presentation on bait cars later tonight for my policing class (which is super fun by the way) and start studying for midterms! I told myself to start studying last weekend, but that came and went so I really need to start studying or I'm gonna fail my midterms haha.

Olympic break is in a week and a half! Woot!!! SFU NEVER gets a reading break or anything, so I decided to embrace this two week break despite the fact that my summer breaks are shortened before and after the semester.