Wednesday, June 23, 2010

I'm Fruity!

I love breakfast!  I'm always looking for new meals to try, especially something that's healthy and fast.  I recently started reading the Raw on $10 a Day (or Less!) blog.  I can't really imagine myself going completely raw, but the breakfast ideas are wonderful for a summer day.  The one pictured above was quite scrumptious.  It consists of a raw "pudding" made of a half a mango, a banana, and an avocado blended in a blender or food processor.  Then you top it with sliced bananas, the other half of the mango, chopped, and some granola I made previously.  Soooo good!  Next time I make this, I'm going to add in some lime juice or lime zest.  I really enjoyed the tang from the mango and wanted to add to it.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

My Secret Love

I love cookbooks.  I'm so weird that I will borrow all sorts and then read them in bed.  I'll get all excited and call out to my bf to look at some food photo or I'll rattle off an ingredient list.  Only recently have I started to try and cook meals of my own inspiration, rather than straight from a cookbook. 

My favorite vegan cookbook, hands down, is Veganomicon.  Practically every recipe I've made from this book is golden.  I've made enough of the recipes that I have a hard time picking one I haven't yet made vs ones I know are brilliant like snobby joes, leek and bean cassoulet, smoky tempeh, BBQ seitan sandwiches, the grain salads....I could go on.

That being said, I've recently made a new recipe out of this book that I thought was brilliant: the seitan picatta. 

Monday, June 7, 2010

Granola and Delta Force



Today's run involved listening to Stuff You Should Know podcast on the Delta Force. They sound so bad ass; these mystery "operators" that travel the world and put down the opposition in the name of the US. Considering I don't particularly agree with our current wars, nor do I like the idea of sending thousands of troops in, these Delta Force guys sound pretty awesome. If you want to read more about them, check out the How Delta Force Works article.

Now down to the good stuff: granola.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Run to Learn

I have a love hate relationship with running. I like running after it's over, however during the actual run, all I can think about is how I'm getting tired, how my foot itches, how my shoulder muscle is sore, etc. This quickly gets me down and makes me feel even more tired, like I can't go on.

I find this a strange phenomenon. When I run on an elliptical at the gym, I can go for much longer without this situation occurring, primarily because I can get engaged into a book. It may be weird, but I typically prop up a book on the machine while running. I realize that running in a gym is easier than running outside, but the differences are quite drastic.

I do have an iPod and I tried running outside with music, but music just doesn't suck me in, leaving me in the same predicament. Luckily, I've discovered a new way to take my mind off running: podcasts. More specifically, the "Stuff You Should Know" podcasts. The more recent ones are about 30 minutes long (earlier versions are only 5 minutes each). They are really interesting and amusing as well. I also get more excited to run, because I refrain from listening to them except when running. Today I listened to one today about counterfeiters. For example, did you know that the Nazi's were big into counterfeiting? It wasn't so they could have more buying power, but to undermine the Allies' economy via inflation. They counterfeit British pounds and then they dropped the money from planes. Crazy!

Question of the day: do you do anything to distract yourself while exercising?

My favorite cookbook right now is Veganomicon. This is somewhat surprising because it has so few pictures (I typically like pictures to inspire me), however each recipe I've tried, and I've tried quite a few, has turned out great. Recent I made a few recipes out of it: the smoky tempeh and the baby bok choy. Both were delicious. I also made an interesting carrot and arame side dish from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which was surprisingly tasty. I also heated up some leftover brown rice to serve as a side.



I've also been getting into raw desserts. I made another dessert from Ani's Raw Food Desserts, the chocolate ganache "cake". I had read online lots of good reviews, so I decided to give it a whirl. The best thing about raw desserts is how quick they whip up if you have all the ingredients. The cake was quite tasty, but my favorite part was the delicious chocolate frosting. Mmm!