Had I a Blog

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Studio C

Sunday, November 3, 2013

I might consider calling it "Salad-Free Vegan." Because even though I have had a few great salads in my day, I just do not love salad. I don't. And I believe that if you want to eat healthy and keep eating healthy, you need to be excited about what you eat! And when was the last time a salad sparked that excitement for you? Mmmmhmm, that's what I thought.

I am not starting a vegan blog, but I am coming on the fourth week of eating a 2/3 Vegan Diet. This means I have tried to make sure that 2 of the 3 meals I eat in a day are totally vegan, which leaves me plenty of wiggle room for indulgence in cheese. (Yeah, mostly cheese. I've replaced almost all butter in my life with coconut oil, milk with coconut milk (which I love. Who knew?), and I still don't eat meat. But I simply don't want to feel guilty about eating cheese. Because it's amazing.) And on top of that, I just really love going out to eat both for the tasting of yummy food and for the social aspect, so I can eat my favorite burrito at Baja Fresh without asking them to take all the cheese (and meat) out and still pay full price for it. Or sulkily eat a bowl of fruit while everyone else is enjoying omelettes at The Egg Factory. You know what I'm saying? I don't have to be mad if I "mess up." (Again, this TEDtalk: http://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html)

Not entirely everything I've tried in the last few weeks I have loved (crispy buffalo tofu crisps and Tex Mex spaghetti squash are on the "no" list), but most things I have loved! It is a fun discovery process.

Some meals that I have enjoyed (and which maybe even surprised me!) include the following:

Breakfasts:
Coconut vanilla rice pudding
Eggless French toast with fried apples
Cherry chocolate granola bars
Orange tea cake
Carrot cake waffles
Oatmeal breakfast cupcakes

Lunches:
Sweet potato black bean burritos
Thai peanut noodles and sauteed broccoli
(Okay, I really thought there were more lunch items, I just can't seem to remember them right now!)

I am amazed at how energized and just plain happy my body feels after eating a lot of these meals. It's really addicting! And one healthy choice leads to another: eating well increases my desire to turn down candy and other processed treats later in the day.

No special powers for me. Just hopefully a continued, growing love for plant-based whole foods!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Sugar-free Weekdays

I would hope that posting this here would make it an official goal/experiment.

This TEDtalk http://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html

Plus this person http://www.fiftydownandcounting.com/

have come together in my brain to inspire me to add another "rule" to my diet. I have been feeling like it was time to make another change to improve my health, and after I started talking to Amanda Meagher months ago about how she has completely cut sugar out of her life, I realized how insanely prevalent it is in my own. But of course, I like sugar as much as the next girl, and I enjoy baking every now and again. I looove my cheesecake, gelato, crepes, cupcakes, scones with buttermilk syrup at the Durrant house, etc., and I'm not quite ready to cut it all out. (I don't want to introduce as myself as the vegetarian who doesn't eat sugar. I'd never get invited anywhere!) But it is time for a change, even just a small one.

So I'm going to try something called Sugar-free Weekdays, or, more accurately, Dessert-free Weekdays, because I'm not going to eat a bowl of oatmeal without a good tablespoon of brown sugar, and I'm going to put jam on my toast. But so far it has stopped me from eating nutty bars during work, candy bars at institute, and ice cream before bed.

It will still allow me to enjoy froyo with my friends on Saturday, or make cupcakes for those weekend birthday parties, and even take part in Sunday dessert at home, if I feel so inclined. But hopefully it will significantly decrease my sugar intake and make for a healthier, more energized me! =)

Monday, July 8, 2013

Makes Me Giggle

I would share this photo of my niece from when she was merely a month old.

Because you know what always cheers me up?

This picture of The Darce giving the stink eye.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Friends Who Know

I would take a moment to gush about some of the wonderful friends I have.

As I mentioned in my last post, I had my wisdom teeth removed this week. Today my friends Jillian and Stephanie came (a few hours apart from each other) and brought me the sweetest gifts! It almost makes me cry to think about it--they know me so well! =D

I LOVE PINK!!! Could these flowers be any more cheerful? I think not.

I love that Jillian knows I prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate, and that Stephanie brought me a fruity sorbet (because that is just what I am in the mood for right now!) Also on Thursday my dad bought me Stracciatella because he knows me, too. =)

And since I never got around to it, two of my graduation gifts:

Flowers from Rhen

A delightful (and matching!) pitch pipe from Jillian.

Who knew a C#/Db could bring one so much joy?

Dessert

I would tell a tragic tale of which there is now more to tell.

When I was a wee lass in high school it was a tradition for the choir members to go to Applebee's after a concert. My most favorite thing on their menu (next to mozzarella sticks, I'm sure) was something called Apple Chimi Cheesecake. As you can see from the picture it was basically cheesecake and glazed apples rolled up in some flaky pastry, covered in cinnamon sugar, and served with vanilla ice cream. It was pretty fantastic. When I moved to Boise my senior year of high school, they discontinued this menu item.

Until I was 17 years old, I lived in Pocatello, Idaho. When we were on vacation or making a day-trip to a bigger city, one of my very favorite places to go was then called Johnny Carino's. They had a dessert called lemon delicacy, the likes of which I have never since tasted. Back then it even rivaled my life-long passion for cheesecake. It was a dome-shaped dessert and the perfect blend of tart glaze, sweet cream, and moist cake. Lemon, lemon, lemon. By the time I moved to a city with a Carino's in it, this dessert was discontinued, as well. (And don't you even for one second think that Carino's current lemon cream cake or Olive Garden's lemon cream cake come even CLOSE to what this baby used to be.) (I couldn't find a picture of this old favorite.)

I'm not exactly sure when I started developing a greater love for all things "Italian," but it had to have been before high school graduation. During choir tour my sophomore year of high school my Uncle Kent and Aunt Jennifer took some of my friends and cousins out for dessert at a Macaroni Grill in California. I tried my first cannoli. I don't remember what my opinion of it was at the time, but two years later at high school graduation I really wanted to try another one. Not very many places sell them, so my parents took me to the Macaroni Grill in Boise after my graduation ceremony because we knew we could find them there. They had discontinued making and selling cannoli. In this case I don't want to give the impression that cannoli was my favorite dessert, but what was disappointing about this was that I had wanted to try another one for so long and they are so hard to find that even the place I thought I could count on stopped serving them.

So as far as I can tell, these three of my favorites were all discontinued within a year of each other (2006-2007), and I've never seen them since.

Now it is 2013. I had my wisdom teeth out on Thursday, and when my dad went into Albertson's I asked him to look for Ben & Jerry's Creme Brulee. While I was at college in Rexburg the Albertson's there sold this Ben & Jerry's flavor, and I loved it. I don't normally shop at the Albertson's here in Boise, but I had looked for this flavor at WinCo, Wal-mart, Fred Meyer, the Boise Co-op, and anywhere else I ever happened to be looking for ice cream over the last few years. My dad said he couldn't find it, and I was disappointed because I assumed that Albertson's would carry it here if it carried it there. (He bought me a pint of stracciatella, though, which is my favorite flavor of gelato, so I was appeased for a while.) I told my friend Jillian about it, and she went to work looking for it and discovered that Ben & Jerry discontinued this flavor a year ago.

I must have some sort of peculiar, unpopular taste. Bummer.

Well, my dad bought an ice cream maker, so I can attempt to figure out my own frozen creme brulee. I may have to make a mission of recreating the lemon delicacy, though. That will take some work. Challenge accepted.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Reading

I would share this fabulous link Jillian sent to Sharell and me tonight:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinlarosa/12-scientific-ways-reading-can-actually-improve-your-life

I didn't intend for this blog to be a place for me to geek out about language and literature, but so far 57% of my posts have been relevant to me having an English degree. (28% of them have been relevant to Homestar Runner, and that's kind of a big part of my life, too. Haha ;) )