Back to the Original Question…
…but what does she eat? Well, this is what she DID eat today. Mind you, today was a cleanse day of no alcohol, caffiene, sugar, animal products and gluten. Pretty much all were easy except the gluetn. I love bread!!
I’ve never been a big breakfast eater. This Granny Smith with Viatnamese Cinnamon was a great way to start.
Lunch was a fresh salad with home made vinegarette dressing. Note the pepperocinis. Perhaps my favorite food in the world. No joke! At my bachelorette party I had a Chubby Bunny challenge with pepperocinis!
For dinner we had over our friends Gabe and Andrew. They brought hummus, bread and tomatoes. I made a soup in the slow cooker (to make it easy to have dinner ready while still being able to go on a bike ride) of garbanzos, tomatoes, rosemary, sage, soymilk, ground rice, water, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, diced peppers and pepper flakes. I served it over a bed of spinach topped with more spinach and fresh tomatoes. The soup was low key, but the fresh veggies really punched it up and gave a fun texture. So did the rice. I wanted to thicken the soup, but being gluten free for the next week or so, I needed something natural. I threw some basmati in a grinder and then dumped the pulverized rice in. It wasn’t obtrusive and was almost like a small orzo or couscous, but milder.
One Big Exception
I know, I know, “Joanie, you’ve got a vegan food blog! What are you doing canoodling with processed meat products?” I can’t help it! Ryan and I were on our way to Sunflower market after church and we saw it turn left off of Camelback Road! The WEINER-MOBILE!!!! We were on the Buddy and chased down the hot dog shaped vehicle. We pulled into a parking lot off of Miller and Camelback where two friendly people dressed in red and yellow stepped out of the famous Weiner-mobile. We pulled up and asked if we could get a picture. They kindly obliged as well as gave us a tour of the vehicle. Lined with blue skies on top and a mustard stripe on the floor. We also got weiner whistles! I know, it’s so not veggie, but it’s something that makes me smile 
I mean, two people just out of college, driving around in a riduclous van shaped like a hot dog for a year, and they were so friendly. I’m a sucker for Americana!
After our Sunflower excursion we came home and I slept from 2pm to 5pm. Last night was a busy night at work, being on duty and all. I got calls all night long for drunken, crazy, fighting students. I blame the football game. Anyway, after I woke up, Ryan and I jumped on the bikes and completed 21 miles. Pushed ourselves a good bit and I keep feeling stronger each time.
For dinner, I made burros with black beans, FYH, fresh guac, homemade fire roasted salsa and a TVP/pepper mix. Delish!
Josh Rogan
I mean, Rogan Josh – Beanie Style! Tonight I was in Indian Bliss. Had myself a giant bowl of slow cooker bean based Rogan Josh. It’s usually a lamb or beef recipe, but I veggie-ied it. Pretty standard recipe you can find anywhere online, but added the secret ingredient (soy sauce) to get that “meaty” flavor. I used soymilk and earth balance in place of yogurt. The spice blend, though, is based on Penzey’s Rogan Josh blend. I love Penzey’s! I did this in the slow cooker, which I think really deepened the flavors. Served it up with basmati and I’ m one full Sun Devil. Speaking of which, tonight’s the USC game. It’s here at home, so here’s to hoping for a better game.
Meanwhile, one of my favorite bloggers, Katie, is having yet another giveaway. That lady’s a giveaway maniac! I don’t know how she keeps it all straight. Must be one sharp chocolate covered cookie.
Who are we?
I am laughing at myself these days. Who are we that we’re veggie enthusiast, scooter riding, recycling, Libertarian crazy people? To add to that list? Cyclists! Ry-guy and I got some sweet rides. Mine’s one that an old friend of Ryan’s didn’t want to take with her when she moved. Her loss, my super gain on a super sweet purple Canonndale! Slapped some new tires on that sucker, got some cool blinky lights, tuned ‘er up and I’m on the road. Ryan got his, a blue Dawes single speed, from Bikes Direct. We’ve been doing short rides recently, but tonight we got out there and road approximately 15 miles in 2 hours…plenty of stops worked in there and plenty of silly meandering around the neighborhoods. What was so encouraging was that when we got home, I wanted to keep going. This from a girl who has zero athleticism and hates working out! Granted, I got my heart rate up and my quads feel the juices are flowing, but it gave me a fun sort of high. Tomorrow Ryan and I are going to bike to downtown Phoenix (20 miles round trip) for First Fridays, a monthly local art show. Ryan’s also promised dinner at a place I haven’t been since college, the Paisley Violin. Reviews to come for sure!
Also, I did it again. Remember my post last year with the angel stocking? I finished the most complex stocking yet! A full nativity scene in felt! Ha ha! Anyway, I completed it last night and now am hard at work on yet another.
Feelin’ Hot, Hot, Hot!
I love Arizona, until it can’t make up its mind on the temp to be outside. Recently it’s been yo yo ing from the 40s all the way up to the high 90’s. So, when you live in a residence hall, such as we do, you have to deal with the massive old school A/C system that’s ridiculously hard to regulate. If the heat comes on and then the temp spikes outside, it’s like moving Mt. St. Helens to get it to cool down in the building. Right now it’s waaay cooler outside than it is in our apartment. All the windows are open and I’m a shower-taking maniac.
Meanwhile, I still fired up the stovetop to make dinner. Carolina Style BBQ tempeh, fresh broccoli, garlic mashed potatoes and a funky crazy soup: beets, carmelized onions, radishes and cashews. It was totally awesome!
Off to sweat myself to sleep!
Tofu Secrets
I finally made tofu the way I’ve always wanted it to come out…with a bit of chew and a crisp outside. The secret you probably all know and took me forever to find out is to freeze it and then cook it defrosted. It really punches up the texture.
I made a homemade teriyaki sauce with onions and garlic for the tofu. Served that up with fresh broccoli and red pepper over rice.
Hope you all had a happy Halloween and All Saints Day. Ryan dressed as Swine Flu and I was Harry Potter:
Turmeric So Bright
Saturday was the Tour de Fat in Tempe. Ryan and I couldn’t go as we had to help grandpa move, but we still got to catch a part of the fun by hosting a 7AM pancake breakfast. Our friend Gabe brought over apples and pancake mix. I also had pancake mix, so we had a fun pancake comparison test. My mix was Bob’s Red Mill. Gabe’s was the Fresh and Easy store brand. The lovely picture you see below is the Fresh and Easy brand. It totally won out. Nice fluffy, hearty, multigrain, poofy pancakes. A bit of gala apple in there and our friends were ready to take on Tour de Fat.
Gabe with the Fresh and Easy Pancakes
For dinner I made a coconut curry. Look how bright that turmeric is! It was full of onions and mixed veggies along with some golden raisins. On the side we had some rice along with some sriracha marinated tempeh that I baked in the oven with a cast iron pan. The flavor on the tempeh was good, but a bit on the dry side. Here’s to my ongoing battle with making tempeh as good as they did in the tempeh hash at Sarcred Chow in NYC.
Later this afternoon Ryan and I are headed to Target to get backpacks. Now that we’re a scooterized family we need a better way of transporting stuff. I’ll make sure to get a picture of The Buddy. It’s awesome! We ran errands on this fine day in Phoenix in October. 75 degrees and loving life!
Meal Plan Woes
Obviously I’m blogging less. Why? I’m cooking less. My new job comes with a pretty big meal plan that can accomodate me eating lunch 5 days a week and me and Ryan 3 nights a week in the school dining facilities. Not the healthiest fare, but we make it work. Too, it saves us a ton of money! It’s a recession, darnit, and we gotta pinch pennies.
Speaking of saving money, Ryan and I have decided we’re not getting a car (in the most car-centric city ever). We are buying a motorized scooter called the Buddy. It gets 120 miles to the gallon and only costs $200 a year for insurance. Meanwhile, I also got a street bike, so we’re being green, healthy and saving money on gas! Now, this plan works mainly because I don’t have a commute, Ryan has a short commute, all the stuff we need is relatively nearby and it’s sunny 300+ days a year in Phoenix. Too, no super cold winter days.
Because of our new plot to save tons of money, we have run into the issue of not always being able to haul large loads from Costco or Ikea. We have plenty of cars we can borrow, but I really want to work on using what we have and making the most of bulk foods.
Enter Joanie’s bag o rice
We also stocked up on all the regular stuff such as tomato sauce, pasta, dried beans, oatmeal, soymilk…enough to hold us over for a good long while!
Tonight I got to cook dinner. It’s been a while. On the menu was a bed of lentils with harissa, topped with carmelized onion/green bean/goji berry/ tahini mess, garnished with julliened roasted red peppers and grated carrot. Woo hoo was it spicy! But, very delish.
Tonight I’m duty, so here’s to hoping for a quiet night. Meanwhile, big pancake breakfast at our place in the morning before our friends take off for Tour de Fat.
Healing Power
I’ve been much too busy. Too busy to blog, too busy to hang with the fam, too busy to visit Puppers!!!! Note to self, stop it and take some of your own advice! So, here I am, trying to take my advice. When I say advice, I mean, what I tell students all the time, “take a moment and breathe”.
This past Sunday I did an art therapy workshop with a group of students from the Honors College. There I was telling them to take time each day to stop and be still. Coaching them on breathing exercises, how to push all the craziness out of your head to truly be peaceful, and to take time to conciously process those big life events that happen in college. I’m afraid I’m a bit of a “do as I say, not as I do” right now. I’ve just jumped in full force to my new job and as much as I’m loving really getting into it and investing in it, it’s starting to run me ragged. I’m getting that twinge of self-righteous, onrnery attitude that needs to check itself at the door.
Here I sit, with my desk organized, my tea within reach, listening to the New Age Instrumental station on Pandora. Ohhhmmmmmmmm.
On to the eats. I needed to use up some of the last bit of bruschetta I made as it was starting to stink up the whole fridge. So, what’s better than a Bruschetta Veggie Burger? Mmmmmm…Bruschetta-ey!
Saturday night I made a Greek feast of white bean and basil hummus with rice chips to start off.
Next were Greek Wraps with all the usual suspects. A bit of tofu feta spiced it up nicely.
Then Sunday I busted out the juicer. This mega juice of kale, peach, carrot and pineapple was awesome. I even grew a palm tree out of it! Oh, wait, that’s just Frank, our back porch palm tree behind. But, this drink was mighty enough to grow anything regardless.
Three cheers and a big toast to trying to take care of ourselves!
