Daily Bowl of Oats

posted on: 5.26.2011


What's the best way to enjoy my love of oatmeal in the summer? Overnight oats! I first heard of this from KERF awhile back, and now that it's summer, I've been eating a bowl for breakfast practically everyday. The combinations are endless, butI've been enjoying the combo of: oats, oat bran, almond milk, honey roasted PB, flax, chia seeds, wheat germ, hemp protein, bananas, blueberries & Puffins.

Forks Over Knives

posted on: 5.23.2011


Looks very intriguing!

Best Veggie Burger

posted on: 5.22.2011

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This is the most unique recipe I’ve ever seen for a veggie burger. It called for pasta and quinoa, AND it included “cheese”. I followed the recipe pretty closely, substituting brown rice for pasta, garlic salt for garlic, and omitted the Worcestershire sauce.
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It was hands down the tastiest homemade burger I’ve had.
I also decided to try my hand at making some buns.
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I followed this recipe, but halved it.
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After they came out from the oven, I couldn’t figure out why they were so small! The funny thing is, I just now realized as I’m typing this is it’s because the recipe called for 6 buns, and I made 6 from half the amount of dough. Oops. Oh well, they were still really good! I would highly recommend this recipe because it was really simple, and the bread was delicious.
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Yummy Yumsters

posted on: 5.20.2011

My pizza cravings have finally been fulfilled! The last couple times I've made pizza, I used this honey whole wheat recipe for the crust. I was actually going to try a different recipe this time, but we had all the ingredients for this one, and I was lazy to go get other ingredients for a different dough.

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Spinach and roasted red pepper toppings on top of vegan mozzarella.

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Vegan Banana Muffins
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My mom has a great banana bread recipe, so I used that as the basis for these vegan banana muffins. This was my first time using coconut oil; it gave the muffins a nice coconutty flavor, which worked for this recipe, but I think it could overpower flavors in other recipes.

Ingredients
- 2 c whole wheat flour
- 1 c oat flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 c sugar
- 3 flax eggs (3 tbsp flax + 6 tbsp water)
- 3/4 c applesauce
- 1/4 c coconut oil
- 5 mashed bananas

1. Mix the dry ingredients together.
2. Mix the flax eggs, applesauce, and coconut oil in a separate bowl.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Add bananas.
4. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
**Baking time depends on what you pour the batter into. The mini muffin tin was done in about 20 minutes, while the regular size one took 30 minutes.  
**For the frosting, I eyeballed some Tofutti cream cheese with a bit of powdered sugar.

HH’s Mock Meatloaf & Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes

posted on: 5.17.2011

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What I like about Happy Herbivore recipes are that they don't require a long list of ingredients, AND the ingredients are easy to find at a regular grocery store. This mock meatloaf is really simple to make, and so good! Instead of a package of Gimme Lean, I just used the Boca meatless crumbles we already had, and whole grain crackers instead of bread crumbs. I was pretty excited to try the cauliflower mashed potatoes because I've heard about it from several different places. Definitely did not live up to expectations! The recipe made SO much, and I don't know how it's going to get finished since no one in my family likes it! It just made me miss the delicious cauliflowers the cooks would make for dinner at the center in Italy. 

Can’t Stop Pinning

posted on: 5.16.2011

I recently discovered Pinterest, which is a website where you can save pictures of things you like and categorize them. Ever since I got my Pinterest, I've been pinning pictures nonstop!

On another note, I've been wanting to try sunflower seed butter for a while, so I decided to just make it since we had a whole jar of seeds in the house.
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Not the most photogenic/delicious looking thing, but tasty nonetheless. I kind of eyeballed a bit of oil and salt, and the reason why it looks a bit dry is because I really didn't want to add any more oil.

Also, while I'm still going to continue my vegan challenge, I don't think it's necessary to post every meal I eat because that's not really what I want my blog to be about. I'm just going to post any new recipes I try/find interesting/delicious!

Oh, and if you notice, I have a new header! I'm kind of in the process of trying things out until I feel like settling on a permanent one. The cartoon was watercolored by my friend Courtney when we were studying abroad in Italy.

First Test

posted on: 5.14.2011

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I was making these crackers when my dad came home bearing pizzas from Dominos! Anyone who knows me I absolutely love pizza and can always eat it. Unfortunately, I couldn't this time, because it was covered in cheese, even the crust. And I was proud of myself for not caving in! Also, the weird thing was they forgot the tomato sauce! My dad called Dominos just to make sure he didn't order wrong or something, and they definitely left it out by accident. Has anyone ever heard of that??
Anyway, this was my second time making these crackers. I rolled out the dough thicker this time, so it had more of a chew. The seeds in the crackers definitely make the recipe; it gives such a nice nutty flavor, and wonderful smell.

Improv

posted on: 5.13.2011

I don't even know what to call the breakfast I've had the past two days, but it's so good I had it again. Still wasn't quite satisfied after the oats bowl, so I had a CLIF bar. Pretty excited to learn they're vegan!

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Today, I started my summer job at Alphagraphics, but didn't really have the work hours confirmed, so I didn't think to pack a lunch. My really nice boss offered me some fruit! And cheese, which I had to decline.


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I was really craving some tofu/veggies with brown rice when I got home, but realized we were out of rice. So tofu/veggies with pasta it was!
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When my mom came home, she brought my favorite Vietnamese dessert that my aunt had made! My sister and I used to make tre troi nuoc with my grandma when we younger. We loved to roll the mini dough balls.
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After reading this post, I was in a baking mood! Of course I veganized it with flax eggs; also, omitted the dried mango and coconut. The muffin was a bit dry, but still good!
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Repeat

Double post today since there's been problems with blogger for the past 2 days.
A day of repeat eats!
Same breakfast as yesterday + strawberries. . .still delicious
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I went to College Station again to meet with a professor, and ended up at the same Indian restaurant for lunch when I was in CS last time. Naan is soo good. 
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We got home later than expected, and I didn't feel like making something new.. so, more yummy tofu tacos!


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Pringles Aren’t Vegan

posted on: 5.11.2011

I woke up kinda late this morning, then got distracted by Grey's Anatomy, so "breakfast" was more like a very late lunch. Leftover oat flour from yesterday's "cookie dough" balls combined with almond milk, honey roasted PB, bananas, almond cluster crumbs, and strawberry banana flaxseed muffin...so good.
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Random snacking the rest of the day . . where I discovered lots of things have dairy in them, like Pringles..whoops.

I want to try to make at least one new recipe each day, so dinner tonight was inspired by spicy tofu tacos  from one of my favorite blogs, Peas and Thank You.
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I Got Some Bubblicious. . . For Old Time’s Sake

posted on: 5.10.2011

Third day in a row of waffles for breakfast. . . can't get enough of 'em! strawberries + honey on one, bananas + almond butter on the other
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Today I met up with Vicki in the Woodlands for a shopping day! 
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Afterward, I had a salad at Hubbell & Hudson. The salad bar was like Whole Foods, and it was so expensive. It seemed like I barely had anything, and it was almost $7. Pretty good though. . I threw in beets, broccoli, baby tomatoes, edamame, black beans, corn, brown rice, spinach, romaine, lentils, chickpeas, artichoke, mushrooms, and a barley stuffed grape leaf.
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Vicki and I shared a strawberry/mango mix for a snack later.
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Pasta with marinara for dinner.
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For dessert, I made some of "cookie dough" but changed up the recipe a little by omitting protein powder, adding 1 tbsp of flax, and additional tbsp of oat flour. Mmm, so good. I ate two before the picture, whoops.
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So my sister moved out of her dorm for the summer and had to use up some dining dollars, so she came back with some random things and came in exclaiming "I got some Bubblicious, for old time's sake!"
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Overall, the first day went well. I feel like my snacking when I'm not hungry habit won't happen as much because I usually go for something with dairy in it. Also, I've noticed how much more aware I am of making sure there aren't eggs or dairy in what I'm eating, which is something I never usually think about.

30 Day Vegan Challenge

posted on: 5.09.2011

I've been thinking about trying veganism for awhile, but it would've been a bit difficult in Italy. Now that I'm home, I am definitely ready. . . especially since I've definitely had my fill of dairy (seriously, sometimes I would get a slab of cheese as the main course)! I've been reading Thrive, which is really refreshing because there's actually information on food and nutrition that are new to me. I get tired of reading the same "healthy" eating tips all the time, and I'm excited to try this new way of eating. Since I feel like the 12 week meal plan that's given in the book might be a bit too much for me, I'm just going to incorporate some of the meals into my own diet. I haven't been drinking dairy milk for a while, but it will be interesting to see how I do without eggs, cheese, or any desserts with dairy! Most of all, I am really curious to see how this will affect my body/energy level.

Home Sweet Home

posted on: 5.06.2011

20 hours of traveling later. . . I made it home!
Wednesday night we loaded up and left on a bus to Rome at 3:30am. After checking in/going through security/ waiting by the gate for a while they announced that our plane was going to be delayed because of security checks. After the boarding time was moved back an hour, we finally got on. When the plane finally started moving away from the gate, it was announced that there were problems with the air pressure so we needed to go back to get that checked out. I was dozing off this whole time, so I wasn't really sure how long all of this took, but I knew we were definitely going to miss our connecting flight to Houston in New Jersey. In Newark, we had to go through customs and re-check our bags, and luckily were able to get a later flight. In the end, we made it to Houston only about an hour after the previously scheduled time. . .pretty good, I think.

It’s been strange because I expected to feel some reverse culture shock or something, but everything has been so normal. I even drove a little today and that didn’t feel weird at all, haha. 

Waffles+strawberries for breakfast! Oh man, I really missed waffles. with Tuscan honey on top of course.
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Other random exciting things:
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I got my Aggie ring!


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This book came in while I was gone, so I'm pretty pumped to start reading!