Month: February 2009

Party in a bowl

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First, thank you to the Professional Vegan for guest-posting this morning! It freed me up to get a good chunk of work done :-).

Rewinding to last night, I was in a munchy mood when I got home:

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My baby sampler plate consisted of apple butter, a prune, peanut butter, and a date … the combo of textures and tastes was an exciting mouth adventure :-).

Pre-sampler, my wild night out was a success. Ting, Jem, and I parked ourselves on the couch and watched the Sunday night lineup on Showtime. Who knew such shows existed?? I wish I had cable … though I’m normally in bed by 9pm so I doubt I’d actually get around to watching it. Ting and I also had a little non-food photo shoot … which we probably haven’t done since we were 16!

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I got to bed a little bit after 12 and slept until 7:30, plthhhhh. So need to hunt down an eye mask for sleeping!

Since today’s a holiday for me, I made a bowl of party oats. Invitees to the party included 1/2 cup strawberry cheesecake ice cream oats mixed with 1/3 cup homemade apple butter:

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Healthy cream cheese frosting (1/4 cup nonfat yogurt + 1/4 cup nonfat ricotta, cinnamon, vanilla, honey, coconut, chopped dates, unsweetened shredded coconut):

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My last dark chocolate Adora calcium disk (thanks, Tina!), melted:

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Chopped strawberries:

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A dollop of light whipped cream, 2 crumbled graham sticks, and more unsweetened shredded coconut:

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Party in a bowl:

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With skylight jasmine green tea on the side:

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And now, back to productivity! How was your morning?

Guest Post: The Professional Vegan Bakes …

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… Apple Pecan Muffins!
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I’m super excited to be guest posting on Tales of Expansion; as my blog is geared towards dressing professionally as a vegan, writing about food is a fun diversion from the vegan clothing and accessories.  Since I’m a vegan on a budget (aka – law school grad with loans on a government salary), I make a batch of vegan muffins every weekend and then eat one or two for breakfast every morning (one if I make jumbo sized; two if I make regular size).  This week I made Apple Pecan Muffins based on a recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking.

The ingredients:

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And the necessary baking instruments:

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The batter had some trouble holding all of the chopped apples (perhaps I cut too many; oops), but I found a way to smush them all in!  Based on the batter issues, I decided to make regular sized muffins so I could better monitor their progress in the oven. The over-stuffing didn’t hurt the muffins at all. Here they are pre- and post-bake:

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Of course, I had to taste-test one of them:

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It was very yummy — so yummy that I intend to bring some to my co-workers on Tuesday (I have today off!).  I am on a quest to prove to my co-workers that vegan baked goods are just as tasty as, and possibly better than, baked goods that incorporate butter, eggs, and milk.  Based on co-workers’ previous comments, so far it’s working!  So, next time you are at Whole Foods or think about baking something from scratch, don’t forget to consider vegan options.  😉

– The Professional Vegan

Cultured grapes

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Before I ran out for errands this afternoon, I made myself a little snackie of 1/2 cup grapes and a cinnamon and pb-stuffed date:

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It was so yummy, I felt like I was eating a pint of ice cream all by myself … but better :-D. Dates are the ultimate wonder food.

I was on a mission to use coupons that have been taking up space in my wallet for MONTHS, so I set off in hopes that Target would come through for me on these items. I just missed the bus about four times, so I ended up walking the whole mile and a half to get there. And, of course, Target was overflowing with rude people, the check-out line was wrapped around the store three times, and I couldn’t find what I needed anyway. I went down to the Pathmark and had a litte more success (though it was not what I’d call an efficient trip, either!). Here’s what I got:

img_4021Yogurts and milk for yogurt-making, fat free ricotta for fun, 2 red bell peppers (only $1.99/lb!), grapes (only $.98/lb!), sea salt riceworks (free with coupon — I finally found them!), LiveActive chocolate raspberry granola bars ($1 off coupon). Total: $16, bringing the week’s tally up to $36, still $4 under budget, whaaaaaat!

Side note on yogurt-making: Every 3-4 batches, I use a completely fresh starter (aka pre-made yogurts) to make sure all the good bacteria is thriving. I usually like to mix two types of yogurt so I get maximum culture variety. Therefore, the batch that is incubating tonight includes: l. acidophilius, bifidus, l. casei, l. rhamnosus, s. thermophilus, and bifidobacterium lactis.

This is my first time using Rachel’s brand yogurt, so we’ll see how it turns out. It’d better be good because I had to wait 10 minutes for them to price-check it at the store, only to have the clerk refuse to sell it to me since it wasn’t in the system yet and had no assigned price. I begged and pleaded until he let me scan the cup of Stonyfield again instead.

Three hours after I left, I was back home.

For dinner, I had another slice of pumpkin kibbi (I’m telling you, this is SO good!) with steamed asparagus spears:

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I love asparagus plain, but I sprinkled it with a bit of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper for visual variety.

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Dessert was a treat. I’m generally a plain yogurt kind of girl, but when I buy the little cups to make yogurt like I did today, I often get them in fancy flavors for fun since I only need half (or less) of each cup to use as the starter.  For my dessert, I mixed together the remaining chocolate underground yogurt with the remaining mango pineapple passion fruit yogurt, added about 1/4 cup fat free ricotta, and sprinkled the top with shredded coconut and leftover chocolate-covered pretzel from my blogger secret cupid package.

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And I surrounded the whole thing with grapes and chopped strawberries for dunking:

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I don’t have to work tomorrow, so I’m going to do something completely wild and leave the apartment after 9pm (to walk three blocks and watch TV with Ting and her friend, haha). Have a good night, and good luck tomorrow if you’re going back to your regular routine!

Socialize for your health

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I love when I can combine a good workout with quality friend time, and I’ve been able to do it twice this weekend! Yesterday, Kate, Gina, and I did our 5-mile waffle + ice cream bRUNch, and today my friend Sarah (but I call her “Ting”) is in town and we did another 3.5 around Prospect Park. Our run was so pleasant because it wasn’t part of any sort of training or obligation; it was just a fun thing to do together. Ting’s a bit of a speed demon — I had to work hard to keep up with her, and the stats show it: 34 minutes, 331 calories, average heart rate 166, max 181.

Before the run, I had a quick mid-morning snack of 1/2 grapefruit and a tsp of peanut butter:

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Post-run, I made us a yummy brunch of leftovers and cleared five containers from the fridge in the process. Yay for streamlining!

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I sauteed the Dominican rice I brought home from Friday’s work party in a tsp canola with 1/2 green pepper, 1/4 onion, and the rest of my green beans. The little ramekin has the last of Belkis’ habichuelas (about 1/3 cup each) with a couple spoonfuls of brown basmati rice, and I also fried two eggs in a tsp of olive oil (one for each of us). Ting poured hot sauce all over her egg :-). Sooooo good.

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For dessert, we had the last crumbles of the Orange-Cranberrry Dark Chocolate Heart Tart, also left over from Friday’s work party:

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So sad this is all gone now. It was amazing!

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We also each had one of the dark chocolate Adora calcium disks that Tina sent in my Valentine’s package. These tasted just like straight delicious dark chocolate — hard to believe they pack such a calcium punch!

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Next up: more errands. The list never ever ends, but I am getting through it! It sounds like there are a lot of you who do NOT have tomorrow off. It’s the worst to have to drag yourself somewhere when you know that everyone else is relaxing. Hope you’re getting some quality weekend time in now!

Systematic food maintenance

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Breakfast this morning was strawberry cheesecake ice cream oatmeal!

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I’m trying to use up all the things that need to be used, so I made a big batch of this concoction. Good thing it is delicious! Into the pot went a little bit over 1 cup of whey from Greek yogurt-making, 1 cup of “ice cream” mixture from yesterday‘s strawberry cheesecake ice cream (minus the red velvet crumbs), a few freezer burned strawberries and blueberries I found during the deep-clean yesterday, a chopped frozen banana, 1 cup of cooked brown basmati rice from two weeks ago, 1/2 cup dry old-fashioned oats, and 2/3 cup instant white grits. I ate about 3/4 cup of the final product topped with a chopped strawberry and cinnamon (obv). And jasmine green “artwork” tea on the side:

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I feel so relaxed today after organizing everything in the kitchen last night! I hope the roommates don’t kill me when they get home and can’t find any of their stuff . But just look at how beautiful and easy everything is! Here’s the pantry with tea on the top shelf, common staples (oats, olive oil, sea salt) and coffee on the next, Brig and Tara’s canned foods on the next, and my whole grains on the bottom:

img_3988And the cupboard with Brigitte’s baking mixes, flour, and sugar (and my whole wheat flour wayyyy on the right) on the top; her rices, pastas, and sauces on the next shelf; and our spices and seasonings on the bottom:

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And finally, the pièce de résistance: the freezer! Specially marked cardboard boxes for Brig’s ice packs, breads, and meats are on the left; her leftovers are in the middle; and my leftovers are on the right:

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Poor Tara doesn’t buy much food because finding space for it is such a painful process. I don’t blame her. Hopefully the new system will help her out … and last more than a week!

I’m off to tackle the next thing on my list. Thank goodness I have tomorrow off! Do you?