Apple Sage Field Roast Sausage

Yes! I FINALLY tried Field Roast Sausages!!! I bought all three flavours and then I realized of all the flavours Apple Sage is the most strange and I almost regretted buying it. Seriously, what sort of foods do you combine it with? We decided to just cut it up and pan fry it and serve it with szechuan green beans and roasted potatoes.

The verdict: pretty good. I wouldn't say these are as amazing as people say they are, but they weren't bad. The texture was perfect but I think they had a slightly weird taste, but after I dipped them in ketchup it went away and they were great.

I don't really know what to do with the Apple Sage flavour though, that's the main problem. I was considering making a hot dog with them, but I think it would still be weird. At least the mexican and italian flavours are more versatile (although I've yet to taste them, they could be awful).

Here is a picture of them raw:

All you have to do is remove them from their plastic casing, which is super easy to do and then they are ready to cook. Make sure if you are cutting them up that you have a sharp knife though. I could see these falling apart pretty easily.

Overall I say if want some veggie sausages the Apple Sage Field Roast ones are pretty good. The texture is the best I've had out of all veggie sausages I've tried. Smell is really important to me, so even if something tastes good but smells bad, I hate it. Fortunately, these have no strange faux-meat smell, just a yummy smell :)

On a side note, we bought a new chair for the bedroom because we don't have any seating besides the cat-hair infested couch or our uncomfortable dining chairs. Unfortunately all three cats have decided to take over the chair and its footstool! I haven't been able to use it for more than 10 minutes because I feel bad moving a sleeping kitty. On the plus side, the cat hair comes off super easy! I feel bad for Bella though. She keeps trying to sleep on it but the other two kitties chase her away and a fight ensues haha. She did get the footstool last night though, she probably went fierce on their asses to get it. I'm surprised I didn't wake up to angry kitties actually.

I only have three papers left this semester! I can't wait until I'm finished. It's all over on the 8th and then I start studying for finals which is just as taxing. Ah well, such is life as a University student.

I am ordering some soy candles this week. There are a million scents though, so I have to sit down and seriously decide or I will end up buying like 40 of them. I'll let you know how they smell when I get them!

Anyways, go try some Field Roast and spoil yourself. They are rather expensive (another downside) but they are worth it.

Peace y'all.

Earth Hour

Tonight is earth hour, so let's all turn our lights out from 8:30pm-9:30pm. Of course, you should always have your lights off when you're not using them! Be POWER SMART!!!

Also, if you are really concerned about the environment and global warming etc, eat a vegan diet. It's the best thing you can do for the planet :)

Have fun with your lights out!

Blah

Today sucked. Enough said.

I want to curl up with a book and a hot chocolate and listen to the rain, but I can't.

Blargh.

Roasted Red Pepper and Sundried Tomato Linguini

This didn't photograph too well and I only took one picture because it smelled SO good that I didn't feel like taking a pretty one, I just wanted to eat it!

The garlic bread is from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. You freeze the bread and then rub a clove of raw garlic on it and the PERFECT amount of garlic rubs off on the bread. How genius is that idea? Seriously.

To roast the pepper: preheat the oven to 500 degrees (you heard me) and then put the pepper(s) on a roast pan and roast it for about 30 minutes. Turn it once or twice, it is done when it's all burned and bubbly. IMMEDIATELY after you take it out of the oven seal the pan with tin foil. When it's cool peel off the skin and remove all the seeds and whoa-la, roasted peppers!

Here's what you need for the pasta dish (serves 4):

1 large red pepper, roasted and sliced
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, lightly chopped
3 handfuls of spinach
1 tbsp red pepper flakes - less if you don't want it too spicy (optional)
1 can of italian stewed tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
salt and pepper
garlic powder
1 box of whole wheat linguini

Pour the can of stewed tomatoes into a sauce pan and break them apart with your fingers so they are in various sized chunks. Add in the tomato sauce, salt and pepper, garlic powder, sun dried tomatoes, red pepper and chili flakes (if using). Simmer for 30 minutes.

When the sauce is almost done simmering, cook your pasta according to the directions on the box. Strain and add back to the pot. Pour the sauce into the noodles and add the spinach. Mix everything together with tongs.

Serve with garlic toast.

This is my favourite pasta dish. The leftovers are soooo good too.

And on a fabulous little side note, check out my new sexy-ass broom. I just need a matching dustpan to go with it now. $10 at Homesense :)

Grocery Time & Other Ramblings

I was coming home from the doc’s in Vancouver this morning so I did the first bit of my grocery shop at Whole Foods and then went to Save on Foods later. I also picked up the boyfriend’s drycleaning and felt like a 1950’s housewife. It was great. My internet is finally back! It has been down since Saturday because Telus is stupid. We ordered more TV channels and then like an hour later the tv and internet stopped working.

I’m so busy right now! I am halfway through my essays (4.5 to go) which is great. I’m really nervous about finals this semester so I have to start studying for those like next week, ugh. I splurged today and bought a few cans of this organic canned kitty food and they LOVED it. Even Alma, who normally just takes a nibble of wet food, gobbled hers up. I guess I’ll have to buy more of it.

Here’s what I bought this week, it was about $150 but I threw out my receipts so I don’t remember exactly.

OOH! I JUST FIGURED OUT HOW TO USE THE SPLIT SCREEN THING ON WINDOWS 7!!! I have been trying to figure this out since I installed it. This is AMAZING!!!

Sorry, back to what I bought haha:
4 corn on the cob
2 organic tomatoes
2 organic red peppers
2 organic orange peppers
1 red onion
6 bananas
2lbs of organic strawberries
1 pineapple
2 bunches of organic kale
small bag of organic mixed greens
1lb bag of organic kiwis
1 zucchini
bag of organic green beans
bag of cremini mushrooms
3 cans of organic canned kitty food
bag of organic quinoa
bag of organic long grain brown rice
Whole Foods guacamole (I NEVER buy guac from the store, but I’m too lazy to make some this week)
organic frozen potato wedges (Rosemary garlic flavour, yummy)
Oasis orange juice
1 can of refried beans
2 cartons of coconut water
2 boxes of whole wheat linguini
1 box of Nature’s Path cereal (I forget the flavor, some red berry mix I think)
6 whole wheat hamburger buns
pack of whole wheat burrito shells
Seventh Generation laundry detergent in the 2.5L size
ketchup
Dr.Praeger’s TexMex (I think) veggie burgers – I have never had Dr.Praegers before, but I’ve heard good things, so I’ll see
Vitasoy soy milk –I had the urge to try a soy milk I’ve never had this week. I don’t know why.
carton of organic, vegan chai tea mixture – I have literally no idea why I bought this. I don’t even really like chai tea lattes, but I saw it on the shelf and I bought it
(These next things aren’t in my picture because I had put them in the fridge when I got home from Whole Foods and ran out of room on my stove)
organic almond butter
baby spinach
tofutti cream cheese
muffin from Whole Foods bakery (it was SOO GOOD! It had pumpkin seeds and raisins and a bunch of other yummy stuff in it. It was totally worth $3)
organic cotton all natural tampons (at least it’s better than tampax, I need something as backup still cuz I can’t get my divacup working!! Haha)

On Friday I pick up my online order for some vegan goodies like s’mores, cookies and chocolate eggs. I’m going to drive down to Bellingham to buy some Field Roast sausage. Hopefully the border isn’t retarded and realizes it’s NOT real sausage, but who knows. They took away a can of soup from me once because it had meat in it, yet it was MADE in the US so who knows, border guards are a strange folk.

What are we eating this week? This list is not exhaustive btw, it’s just what comes to mind after I wrote out my grocery list. We are going out for dinner on Friday in the States and I have no idea where to go…so I have to look that up.
Breaky = cereal, smoothies, fresh juice, fruit
Lunch = sandwiches, chili, soup, leftovers from dinner, fruits and veggies, juice
Snacks = crackers with PB/Almond butter, fruits, veggies, granola bars, fruit leathers, ice cream,
Dinner = burgers, burritos, shishkabobs, lemony/garlicky broccoli quinoa, braised cauliflower, szhechuan green beans and rice, corn on the cob, fancy pasta, soup, chili

Oh. And my day was ruined this morning by a chicken truck. It was 7:30 in the morning, driving down the #1, so obviously it’s pretty slow-going. I merged onto the highway behind a chicken truck and almost DIED. I had to follow it for like 20 minutes and then I finally got to pass it and then like 10 minutes later his lane caught up and I had to sit by it for another 10 minutes, I was so heartbroken.
The chickens were FILTHY and so SAD looking. I saw two dead ones (or at least I think they were dead…they weren’t moving) and these other two had their wings around each other and were just blankly staring into space with this sad and scared look on their faces. This other chicken was all curled up in a ball with her head poking out and she looked so sad too. I just started bawling. I knew they were on their way to the slaughterhouse which was the worst part. They all looked like they knew something horrible was going to happen to them, and I couldn’t even help them. They could have been traveling for hours too, I have no idea. I read this one story of a lady who followed a chicken truck from Banff to Vancouver (that’s like 12 hours!!) I really wanted to stop the truck and take the one chicken curled up on her own, but I couldn’t. Ugh, it just ruined my day. I was all pissed this morning too because I overheard a conversation two girls were having in the library yesterday that just highlighted the ignorance and defensive nature meat eaters have. I just wish people weren’t so scared of change, but alas, that’s the world we live in.

I have 3 more journal entries for my police studies course to do tonight and then I am going to have a bath. I have to apply for a rent-a-cop volunteer position too, that should be fun. I’ll get a good reference out of it at least.

Bella was sleeping in one of the million folds of this giant purple blanket I have. It was so cute!

Amy's Minestrone Soup

I went to Costco on the weekend and to my surprise they are carrying lots of organic items now! I got a case of 8 Amy's soups for $13 which is a great deal considering one can at Save on costs $5.

This soup was the best canned minestrone I've ever had. It filled me up and didn't have that "can" taste that lots of soups have. I love the weird noodles too. I definitely recommend this soup. It makes a light, but filling lunch and would make a good dinner if you paired it with a crusty baguette or something.

My favourite part about Amy's soups is how all the vegan items just say (Vegan) in front of the ingredients. Why can't everyone do this? It would make checking for ingredients much easier...although I'm not sure if I would trust larger companies definition of "vegan" so I might end up checking anyways. But, it's still a good idea.




I am going to go eat a can of this now :)

BTW. I ordered Sweet and Sara s'mores and Field Roast Sausages!!! I'm so excited!!

Brown Rice and Beans Jambalaya

If you don't own Eat, Drink & Be Vegan already, then I highly suggest you go buy it. Every recipe from there has been amazing, and I've had to make little to no modifications to any recipe - rare for me!!! I'm always changing stuff. Plus, there is an ENTIRE HUMMUS CHAPTER!!!! Who wouldn't want that? Seriously, go buy it.

Anyways. I made the Brown Rice and Beans Jambalaya from it last week and it was absolutely delicious.

I won't post the recipe because it isn't mine but I'll tell you what I modified. I didn't have file powder or Worcestershire sauce so I just did a quick squirt of ketchup instead. I also added red pepper chili flakes and extra cayenne pepper to make it spicy. I used a green and orange pepper and added extra onion. At the end you are supposed to stir in parsley and green onion, but I forgot to mix it in!! I had it cut up and ready to go to haha but it tasted great without it. I used short grain brown rice and had to cook it for about 10 minutes longer than the recipe said because it was still chewy.

Oh, and the book says it makes four servings but it made eight. Overall this dish was excellent and makes great leftovers in the freezer too. I'm gonna add this to my recipe rotation for sure.

In case you can't tell by the picture, it's really filling too! I could hardly finish mine and the only reason I did was because it was so tasty I forced myself to finish haha.

Being on hold sucks

Blah. Being on hold with VISA is the worst. After 20 minutes I got my online account unlocked and then I entered my password and it got locked again all of the sudden.

So now guess what I have to do?

Phone VISA back and wait on hold AGAIN!!! Argh.

The worst part is they keep blabbing about stupid Olympic VISA cards. Who would want that?

Fur and other things

Hi all.

I went to the Canucks game tonight. I was in row 3!! If I actually liked hockey and glorified the players like I did 5 years ago then I may have found it interesting, but I was just bored. Jason had fun though, so that's good.

My neck hurts now because of looking up to the megascreen and way down ice to my left, ugh. It's a little stingy, but hopefully it goes away tomorrow. The bandage is starting to itch like a mother and I really want to take it off but it would hurt haha.

I finally found this website I came across a while ago. Apparently these were advertisements on the skytrain but I never saw them. If you read the stuff it's just ridiculous....cuz I'm really going to believe the words from the Fur Council of Canada. HA HA. Plus, who is anti-fur mainly for the environmental damages? Maybe they should say furishumane.com and people will see how ridiculous the industry really is.

This is my favourite:

While it is totally legitimate to have differing personal views on the use of animals, whether in our diets or for the clothes we wear, is it really fair to single out one industry and attack the livelihoods of thousands of people, who, like everybody else, have families to raise and bills to pay? Is it really fair to attack the fur industry in a society where 97% of the population eats meat and uses animal products everyday?

This is a pretty lame justification too:

In nature, each plant and animal species generally produces more offspring than the land can support to maturity. Like other species, we live by making use of part of this surplus that nature creates

So, does that give me an excuse to skin the Duggar children then, or any family that has more than 2 children? Anything more than 2 is excessive. I just don't get how that justifies killing an animal for its fur. Gah. People are so stupid.

I think the site is hilarious though. Go check it out and have a laugh at the ludicrous suggestions it makes.

Gardein Chicken Strips

Being in Vancouver yesterday I had to stop by Whole Foods (yay!!!). I got this frickin delish cookie from the bakery there. Anyways, I found the Gardein frozen line there and got really excited. I bought the Chicken Scallopini because that's the one they always show on tv and in cookbooks and is supposedly the best tasting/most versatile one. I haven't tried them yet, but I'll let you know how they are when I do!

VegNews claims the chicken strips are great and I generally agree with their food suggestions, plus they are the only vegan strips I can buy around here (the rest have egg) so that made me really excited to try them. Now, I rarely ate chicken strips pre-veg but sometimes you want something junky/fast to make for dinner so I figured I would try them. After all, it's a great excuse to use Renee's Tangy Thai sauce!!!

I thought the chicken strips were excellent! They tasted great, there was no weird faux meat taste and they were easy to make. As you can see in the picture they are incredibly chicken like, which kind of scares me. In fact, they are so chicken like you could trick a meat eater into thinking they are real chicken. These would be a good transition food for meat eaters moving towards a veggie diet. The batter was really thick and tasty too.

They were the best with the Renee's Tangy Thai sauce, which made them a bit spicy, but I ate half of one plain and it still tasted good. I got 10 in my bag and it cost $5 so they are a bit pricey, but for a small meal once in a while it's worth it.

I feel strange eating something so chicken like but nevertheless these taste great and are a good transition food for meat eaters. I don't know where you can buy them in BC, as they just came to Canada, but I found the frozen line at Whole Foods.

Now I just need Luna and Larry's coconut milk icecream to get it's butt up here!!! Their website says coming to Canada in 2010...so, that could be next month or December!!! Bah humbug.

Well, enjoy the rainy weather!!! I'm stuck inside doing schoolwork with a painful neck anyways, so I know I'm enjoying it. I love the sound of wind and rain from inside.

/cry

I got my tattoo removed today. I'm still somewhat numb but thankfully he removed it all in one go so I don't have to get more stitches/bandages/annoyingness in 6 weeks.

I'm quite sad.

It's going to suck to sleep.

A Rekindled Romance

I have rekindled my long lost love for tomato soup. You heard me. I haven't had tomato soup in years and I think I liked it as a kid, especially with huge chunks of crackers that get all soggy but the very middle is still crunchy - delicious.

I had a can of Campbell's tomato soup in the back of my pantry which I found and was like "poo, it's probably not vegan" and it turns out is IS vegan. So I had that but then I wanted to find a healthier version and I found the tomato soup made by Imagine Soups and it tasted delish (it's the one in the picture). It does cost more (who can compete with Campbell's condensed soup prices, really) but the packaging is more convenient and the lack of crap in the actual soup makes up for that. Plus, it's organic!

I compared the nutrition of each and they were basically the same with the Imagine Soups marginally more healthy. The main difference is in the ingredients, where Campbell's uses preservatives and high fructose corn syrup, the Imagine one uses no preservatives and brown rice to sweeten. The Imagine one tastes better too. They also have a creamy potato leek soup I want to try!

So. The lesson for today is go buy tomato soup. I need to go buy a giant case of it because I'm that obsessed right now.

And for good measure here are some pictures of cute kitties!!!

We were fixing our bedframe so we had the mattress/boxspring up against the wall so of course Charlie jumped right up there and made himself at home. He looks soooo happy!!!


And then of course, who can resist a tubby girl? Look at all those rolls!!! And that cute smile!!!


And last but not least, Bella taking a cat nap. I'm jealous that cats get to sleep most of the day and I have to do stuff, it's unfair really lol.



I'm off to make the Brown rice and beans jambalaya from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan now. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Articles

I have a stash of bookmarked newspaper articles and the like in my history that I should start posting links to in case anyone is interested.

Here is an article I found today that analyzes our digestive system and compares it to the systems of herbivores and omnivores. Seems we're herbivores, interesting!

This is an article someone posted on a forum I read and it's quite good, here's a quote:

"If, as a meat-eater, being exposed to this reality bothers you, it is not the fault of the vegan. Lashing out or making up endless excuses doesn't change the stark scientific fact that animals are suffering because of our taste buds. Your neatly packaged chicken breast, all wrapped in pristine plastic, was once part of an animal that felt fear and pain. It's called responsibility and culpability, and we're all to blame.

Now, you may try to argue that eating animals is a matter of personal opinion or choice, but again I'd have to disagree -- this is not about your opinion versus my opinion, this is about animal suffering. You can't discuss your "personal choice" of eating animals while leaving animals completely out of the conversation."

And last but not least, here is an article that talks about the disgusting and ever growing manure problem in the US.

I'm off to do some late night studying now...I slacked off all day after I wrote a paper, oops!

Peaceable Kingdom

I found a link to a spanish animal rights website that has the entire Peaceable Kingdom video on it. There are spanish subtitles, but you hardly notice them.

Here is the link and I highly suggest you take 70 minutes out of your day to watch this. It's a movie about farmers/previous meat eaters/childhood animal lovers who rescue animals from factory farming conditions. It contrasts positive images and stories with horrible ones which I think makes the film really powerful. I highly recommend it.

I cried basically the entire movie, but it wasn't all sad crying! Unlike many animal abuse videos this one shows animals being rescued and has a lot of positive stories about animals too...which of course, make me cry harder than the sad parts! I'm a sucker for rescued animals, just seeing their joy is the most powerful feeling and I can't help but cry for them and be so happy for them. Anyways, I'm rambling and don't make a lot of sense right now because I just finished watching the video. If you watch it, the story about Snickers is soooo heartwarming.

I have been extremely depressed and annoyed by the ignorance in the world as of late - about an assortment of issues, not just animal related ones - and I don't really know what to do about it. I just wish people weren't such fucking idiots.

Blah. I'm going to eat a PB&J sandwich now and write my outline for my horrible essay due tomorrow.

Share the video with people you know. We all have compassion buried somewhere inside of us, we just need to find it.

Bye for now :)

Groceries!!

The weather today is amazing!!! If I hadn't already showered and put on my makeup and stuff before I realized this I would have gone for a long jog or something. Oh well, I'm lazy today anyways.

So today was GROCERY SHOPPING DAY!!! MY FAVOURITE DAY!!! I love to buy food.





Here's what we bought:

Earth Balance sticks ($5.69! Ugh)
Nutritional yeast
Organic long grain brown rice
So Delicious chocolate coconut milk icecream
Amy’s organic vegetable pot pie with tofu (For Jason, unfortunately it has milk *sigh*)
Premium Plus crackers (gotta have these with tomato soup!)
Crispy Minis (Sweet chili for me, Ketchup for Jason)
Organic quinoa
Nature Valley granola bars (Roasted Almond for me, Strawberry Yogurt for Jason)
Nile Spice Soup in Minestrone (I’m eating this now…not amazing, but a decently healthy and quick lunch)
Oasis orange juice
Organic peanut butter (only ingredient is peanuts :D)
Man razors
So Nice original soy milk
Imagine Foods Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
2x butterscotch pudding for Jason (jealous)
Giant bag of Whiskas Temptations for the babies
Goji berries
Chia seeds
Apple Lara bar (*gasps* I just noticed it's UPSIDE DOWN in my picture. How sad, you don't get to see the pretty label)
Organic canned pumpkin
Can of crushed tomatoes
Bush’s vegetarian baked beans
Can of green chilies
Canned black beans
2x canned chickpeas
canned corn
Frozen fruit (strawberry, blueberry, peach I think)
2x canned kidney beans
Bananas
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Green beans
Green onions
2x organic green peppers
1x organic orange pepper
2x giant jalepenos
2x lemons
Parsley
Pineapple
Red onion
2x zucchini
Mini watermelon
2x garlic
20 mushrooms
Cascades toilet paper
Cascades paper towel
3x Cascades kleenex
Ecomax lavender dish soap

So what am I making with all this delicious food? Well for snacks we have some crap like crispy minis, icecream and I’m going to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls and veggies with hummus and goji berries of course. For breakfast it’s cereal with soy milk, smoothies and pancakes. For lunches I’m gonna make chili and soup to freeze and we have bread for PB&J, soups and veggies/fruit. For dinners I am making lemony broccoli quinoa, shishkabobs, jumbalaya with green beans and some other stuff. We have some soup and frozen meals for that too.
Should be a tasty week.

Total cost was $200. I’m not a bargain shopper when my budget allows me, although most stuff I buy is on sale. $50 was on household stuff like toilet paper and razors, the other $150 was all food. That’s quite average for us, especially when I’m making freezer lunches and this week I spent $50 just on Goji Berries and Chia seeds! I bought more canned and processed stuff than normal too but all in all I was still on budget! We give ourselves $300 every two weeks for groceries. Some weeks are as cheap as $75 but that depends on how stocked up we are and if I have to buy big ticket items (anything over $8).

Time to go write a paper on CCTV monitors now. How boring, eh? First I'm gonna go make an apple, cinnamon, peanut butter sandwich. So. Fucking. Good. Seriously, go make one! I never have banana and peanut butter anymore because this one pwns. (Lately I've been saying pwned/pwns for some reason. My brother is rubbing off on me and my WOW lingo is coming back to haunt me haha)

Anyways. Enjoy the sunshine everyone!

Tired

My feet are so tired! My back is so tired! My neck is so tired! I could go on, but I think you get the idea - I'm tired.

Today sucked. They were testing the fire alarms in the building so on top of the fire alarm going off every 2 minutes for 6 hours I had to wait around at home all day for the guy to come in for 5 seconds to check if mine works. The kitties were so nervous and scared all day. I think I talked about this in my post this morning actually so I'll stop blabbing about it now.

Volunteering was really fun today, I was so busy the entire time and finally got to leave when BAM a woman throws up ALL over the clean floor so I had to help clean it up. Oh well, I still got to leave early. My grandma is buying me new shoes from zappos.com so next week I won't have sore feet. Unless of course, these new shoes turn out to suck and give me blisters and even more sore feet, but I doubt it, they look uber comfy.

I'm gonna go eat something and watch my American Idol recording now. Goodnight.

PS.
I'm seriously craving a decadent baked dessert, but I don't know what I want. Ideas? I'm thinking a pie with cocount milk icecream or a fruit crisp...but I might go totally wild and make my first vegan cheesecake. OR PUMPKIN CINNAMON ROLLS. OR this weekend I can gorge myself and make ALL of those things!!! I can't be that fat though, so I have to choose one. I'll make the kitties decide.

Banana Crumb Muffins

If these muffins don't make you want to die and go to heaven I don't know what else would. Seriously, these are the best. They are a great way to use up those bananas you forget about that go brown and too ripe and mushy to eat. Just throw those bananas in the freezer and when you have a few you can make these muffins. Bananas don't take long to thaw either.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
3 large or 4 small bananas, mashed
1/3 cup Earth Balance, melted. I'm sure you could use canola oil or something, but I like the flavour it brings so I use butter
1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 3 tbsp water until it's gelatinous and gooey (egg like!)
1/2 tsp vanilla
cinnamon*
allspice

Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp flour
cinnamon
nutmeg
canola oil

To Make:

Preheat the oven to 375 and get your muffin tins ready. This makes 12 muffins.

1. Mix together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a large bowl.
2. With a fork mash together your bananas, earth balance, white sugar, vanilla and flax seed mixture making sure to leave a few small chunks of banana for tastiness.
3. Add the banana mix to the flour mix and stir together until just moist and then pour into the muffin pan.
4. Mix together the ingredients for the topping. It takes 1-2 tbsp's of canola oil. You want it to JUST be moist and crumbly. When done sprinkle on top of the muffins.

Bake for 22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out nice and clean.

* I never measure spices like this, so use your own judgment here. I find I add more cinnamon than most people (as in triple whatever a recipe calls for) because it's never strong enough. Go easy on the allspice though, it's a strong blend.

I can't decide if these taste best still warm from the oven or the next day. Something about day old banana bread is friggin' amazing. You could probably make this into a loaf and just baking it longer at a lower temperature. I like muffins better than loaves however, so I've never tried.

I MUST go check out karmavore for field roast sausages. I checked their website and they just had the celebration loaf. I should phone them, too bad I have a phobia of talking on the phone, gross.

I shall leave you with a picture of Charlie on the counter (where he is NOT supposed to be). They are testing the fire alarms today so they keep going off which makes for scared kitties so I'm letting him stay there, just for today. I must say, my counters look very clean and shiny in that picture.

Yves Veggie Balls

Let me just say that the word "balls" is the greatest word ever.

I bought these a while back because every time I was staring at the tofu section of the grocery store I wanted to buy them. I figured I may as well try them so I can move on to something else. I still want to find field roast in Canada, but companies seem to forget we exist north of the 49th parallel and never ship anything here! Or they give us limited selection or it's in one store in TORONTO. Hello???? Vancouver is a big city too!!

Anyways.

The veggie balls as you can see in the picture look quite meaty. I wouldn't say they are bad but I wouldn't say they are delicious either. I may buy them in the future, but I think I prefer plain spaghetti, I never was a huge meatball fan...although I may buy them and make the IKEA meatball sauce that vegandad has on his blog...that could be good! HAHA, I could add "Sweden" to my list of international cuisines to make. Yes I know, IKEA food = not Swedish.

Yesterday afternoon I was browsing vegan products to try and I still need to get field roast sausages, rising moon organics ravioli, amy's dairy free mac and cheese bowl, whizzers chocolate eggs (If I order soon I'll get them by Easter) and some "chicken" noodle soup. I also discovered some skin care/makeup brands I want to try but I have no money for that sort of thing right now. I need to order more Daiya cheese too! I am going to make a grilled cheese sandwich on the weekend to use up the rest of the cheddar.

My toe still hurts and we are out of episodes of Lost to watch so Jason and me are very bored tonight haha.

I might bake muffins. In fact, I am going to go thaw my bananas right now. I normally peel them before I put them in the freezer because it's sooo cold to peel frozen bananas, but I've been a lazy person.

My brother has full intentions of going vegan in the future and just told me he wants to give up eggs and dairy asap. I told him he should probably wait as he still lives at home and my mom would be annoyed, but he could give up eating plain eggs and buy soy instead of regular milk. He's been veggie for two months and I'm very excited I know another veg*n in real life! My friend told me she wants to stop eating everything "bad" as well and has been asking for advice on a vegan diet as well. Yay! I'm a positive influence. Even my mom and step dad eat less meat now and Jason orders vegetarian food when we eat out quite often.

MUFFIN TIME! Check back for food porn. Yes. I said food porn. I hate that term too. Fudge.

Juice Detox Day 5

I had originally planned to do seven days, then I switched to five because I was going back to school today, then back to seven because it's only two days longer, but now I am back to five days. Yesterday was my last day. I had the same stuff I've been eating the last few days and my juice was spinach/carrot/celery. Sounds grosser than it is, mostly because of the spinach - I hate spinach. It actually tastes extremely bland, you should try it some time!

So, was it worth it? Have I noticed any changes? I would say YES! Do a juice detox. I have so much energy, I lost 5lbs (without exercise, boo ya), my skin is clearer, my brain feels lighter and I actually have no cravings for sugar (especially pop, my biggest sugar pitfall). I'll see how I feel over the next few days, if my sugar cravings come back to me or what. I might do a bi-weekly juice fast on Saturdays. Basically I would just drink 5 or 6 glasses of fresh juice and a shit tonne of water once a week or every other week to cleanse my system and stuff.

When I wrote my paper last night I was the most focused I've been in a long time. I noticed almost immediately when I went vegan that I had a lot more energy and I was more focused and stuff but that feeling faded and although I still feel better than pre-vegan I don't have that euphoric feeling. This detox really brought that feeling back and I'm really happy about it.

Anyways. If you have a juicer and 5 or 7 days I highly recommend doing a detox. I don't think I could do a total fast, but the detox is basically healthy, mostly raw foods and it's just great.

Part of the reason I stopped 2 days short was the fact that I go back to school today for quite a few hours and it's annoying to bring juice because it isn't as good for me old versus fresh and because I LOVE FOOD. I never had a stronger desire to cook and bake than during the detox. I am going to continue to try to juice once a day and increase my intake of raw foods however.

I saw that Amy's has a frozen rice noodle daiya mac and cheese bowl now!!! I totally need to find it, I read reviews and it looks sooo cheesy and yum. Plus, daiya is da bomb so it must be good. Most frozen meals suck, and sometimes you just need a convenient meal, so I usually turn to Amy's. I sound like a commercial, but her stuff is really good.

I'm so excited for Mexican food on Friday!!! Anyways. I have to go walk up a billion flights of stairs now which is going to suck because I somehow pulled/hurt the muscle in my big toe and down to my arch. I woke up in the middle of the night and it hurt and it still hurts. I have to walk all stupid and even though I wore my comfy running shoes I can't walk properly. I'm annoyed because now I can't go to the gym later!!!

I get another midterm back today, hopefully I did as well as the other ones I've had returned. I'm on a roll this semester with regards to marks, yay!

Bye.

OH! And HAPPY MARCH EVERYONE!!! I love March. And thank god the Olympics are over.