What I made yesterday

So yesterday was my first day of cooking from the bag.

Breakfast was not from the bag, I made the Oat Bran-Applesauce muffins from Veganomicon. Those were tasty.

For lunch I used up some carrots that I had previously bought in a Curry Coconut Carrot Soup, recipe at the bottom.

I also made the Cranberry Orange Nut Loaf, also from Vcon. So good. That used up 2 oranges and 1/2 the cranberries.

For dinner I had Greens with Pinto Beans. Very tasty.

Now for the recipe.

Curry Coconut Carrot Soup

4-6 servings

• 1 onion, diced
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 5 cups water
• 1 boullion cube
• 1 tablespoon mild curry powder
• 1 can coconut milk
• Garam Masala as garnish

Preheat a soup pot over medium heat, add oil and sautee onions with a little salt until soft. Add carrots, water, boullion and curry powder. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes, until carrots are soft.

Using an immersion blender, puree the soup off the heat until smooth, be careful of splatters. Add coconut milk and heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm, sprinkled with garam masala.



Wendy

1st CSA bag + ALL DONE!

Woohoo, I am all done with this semester. One more to go and then I can graduate. I already know 2 of my marks and I know I did well on this last final. Should be a good semester mark-wise.

I also got my first Fresh City Farms bag last night. I got a fair bit of food and my fridge is full. I am trying to figure out what to do with all this produce. Luckily, to quote Anna Olson, "What grows together, goes together", so it shouldn't be all too hard to figure out.

I got a HUGE bunch of Rainbow Chard, I am not the biggest fan of chard, but I have mostly just had it plain. I also got a head of cauliflower, which will probably be roasted. I tend to like this Weightwatchers recipe (from when I was on a diet) that is called Cauliflower Poppers. It is essentially roasted cauliflower with chili powder and other spices. The other option is a sorta similar recipe from the Vegetarian Times, I will probably have it without the pita, I can never seem to master eating things stuffed in a pita, unless it is pre-wrapped from a falafel joint.

There was also a bag of carrots (2 lbs) which on top of my other 3 lb bag of carrots from Loblaws means I have a heck of a lot of carrots. I'm thinking curry carrot soup, for some of it at least, sounds like lunch today. Celeriac is something I don't cook with often but one has landed in my fridge. I think roasted with carrots is good. I do like roasted things, if you couldn't tell. The sweetness of the vegetables really come out when they are roasted.

So many yummy things to cook with, so little time. My next box comes on Monday because of Christmas, So I have <5 days to clear out enough food to fit the new box in my fridge. I sense a lot of my veggies in my future, that's fine with me!

Wendy

omg so much to do.

I haven't posted for a while so I thought I would give an update.

The semester is almost over, some assignments to mark, a exam to write and then I am done. so much has happened this semester. The veg club has taken off and I discovered I do not need to be gluten free.

I am starting on a new culinary adventure. I ordered a weekly CSA bag from Fresh City Farms. My parents used to get a CSA a number of years ago, but when I moved out it was no longer economically viable to buy the box. I am curious to see how much produce I get, as that will determine if I continue forward with it. I do realize that this is organic and mostly local but I am on a student budget. On the other hand having all the produce around might encourage me to eat out less so even if it is more expensive for groceries it could work out OK.

I will try to remember to blog about what I got.

In kitty cat news, Muxie has discovered running and that she can jump on to high surfaces, such as counters and the stove (!). she only jumped on the stove once so I'm not too worried. she has also taken to getting really excited when I put away/take out my futon. she runs all over it when I take the sheets off and likes to jump on the back when it is folded up again.

I haven't been programming any extra things lately, school work has me very busy so far. maybe I could work on a little something over the winter holidays. I don't know what it would be. My mother has been managing volunteer scheduling at her church and needs to have a more portable database, (she uses Access). so maybe a java applet, or maybe I could pick up some SQL before my course next semester.

ttyl.

Wendy

Sorry For No Posts in a while

I think the last time I blogged was several months ago......

Since then I have had a decent summer, a couple challenges along the way but generally good.

During this summer I have discovered that I need to eat gluten free. I have experimented with various gf baked goods, some have turned out ok. I also had an icky summer cold.

I have also decided to try and eat more mindfully. One of the big changes I am making is to eat less 'by the clock'. I have realized that becauses of my personality I tend to be very schedule oriented, which is good and bad. This means that I will cook food because it is time to cook food not necessarily when I am hungry, and eat dinner because it is x time regardless of whether or not I need it.


My cooking adventures have been seldom lately. I have been eating quite a few simple meals. GF baking is interesting and a new challenge. Unfortunately the results leave something to be lacking (damn gluten adding wonderful slightly chewy texture, curse you). Although today after one failed ovenfull of cookies, adding xanthan gum to the recipe saved the second tray, yummy. So good they are all gone, now I am practicing my mindfull eating and waiting for dinner/potentially not having it.

So long for now.

Coding is addictive

Hello there,

I'm done!!!! All finished this semester.

Now I need to fill my time. So I decided to write an android app. My app will be a food tracker that keeps track of food guide servings. Currently it can make a days worth of food and remember previously entered food until I exit the app.

The next bit to do will be saving the food list and making it capable of storing more than one day.

I forgot how obsessive I can get about coding. I will sit for hours at a time and get so engrossed I forget about signals such as hunger.

Maybe this app will be good enough to release to the play store. I can dream.

Ttyl

Posting from the train

Hi,

I downloaded the blogger app and decided to test it out right now.

2 exams complete,  1 to go

I am on the train to visit my parents for the day. Muxie is missing me but she'll amuse herself.

Foodwise I have been quite out of control.  I have been having a lot of not so healthy snacks. With exam stress and other things I am not too surprised but it is still hard not to beat myself up about it.

A little background. ...

In order for me to function in everyday life I have to take medication daily.  One of the side effects of them is weight gain. I lost about 15 lbs over the spring/summer last year. Ever since November I have been slowly gaining it back. I am currently almost 10 lbs above my target weight right now. It's hard to come to terms with that. I worked so hard to get there and felt so good. Now I feel like I let it slip away and I have failed myself.

Just writing all that was therapeutic.

I want to lose the weight healthfully. I have used weightwatchers in the past and have had the most success with that. But I feel I let myself get too obsessed with the points and being exact.

I think I will try instead sticking to eating healthy. I will try and follow the food guide for vegans from here. Trying to stick to the minimum number of servings.

I think that will be my plan.

Ttyl

Exam is tomorrow O_o

So I have an exam tomorrow in the afternoon....

I think I'm well prepared. I can do basic assembly programs to level I need to. I know how to read the basic processor diagram we learned in class, I know DeMorgan's Law, how to make a finite state machine out of flip flops. I think I'm ok. Today I will tackle a previous year's exam and see how I do.

As for food...

Last night I was going to have buffalo tempeh from Appetite For Reduction by Isa Moskowitz, but my stomach was a little crampy and having a 1/2 cup of hot sauce didn't seem like a good idea. So instead I did a tempeh dish which seems to be my default.

Cut a block of tempeh into portions

Heat oil in cast iron skillet, I used about a Tbsp of canola oil.

Brown tempeh on one side, flip, brush tempeh with bottled BBQ sauce. Let the other side brown, flip, brush with BBQ sauce again.

I did this process one more time to let the BBQ sauce caramelize a bit.

And voila. tis done

I served this with oven fries (from a bag) and steamed broccoli. Tasty!

I have half the block of tempeh leftover, and I also have a head for red leaf lettuce. I think the tempeh with a salad and some toast is good for lunch.

As for dinner, I'm thinking of soaking some beans and seeing where it takes me. Leaning toward soaking pintos. I'll figure it out.

TTYL

Got to Study....

Ok, so today I definitely have to study. With an exam on Thursday and another on Friday, I really got to open the books. I am quite the procrastinator when it comes to studying. I think it's because I have never had to make a habit out of it. Being the bright individual that I am, I could get away with little to no studying for all of high school and a fair bit of university.

Motivation for studying right now is low because I feel that I am pretty on top of all my courses. I understood what was going on in class and my marks on the homeworks were pretty good. This situation always bites me in the butt because I get lazy, dont study, forget material, and don't do as well on the final as a result.

I am also quite distractable. I'm sure everyone is to some degree. A thought will pop into my head, or even worse I go to look up something on Wikipedia, get my info, then clickthrough on links that interest me and before I know it I am waaayyy off topic. Another common distraction is thinking about my next meal. "What will I cook?", "Do I need to get anything from the store?", "When do I need to start cooking?", "How long will it take?", "When do I want to eat?", and so on. This is where meal planning helps, but I have had trouble making a routine of it as of late. I'll use my Paprika app and meal plan maybe a day in advance. Where as before I would have had a week of meals planned.

Oh well, need to eat now (ha ha) and study later. TTYL

Huzzah I have a Fridge

Yay, my fridge works and is no longer noisy.

Unfortunately I did not sleep well because I was worried about it.

But now that my food is back in the fridge I realize I am low on perishable staples. My freezer looks quite empty. This will mean that my grocerys will be a little more for a while, so I got to cut down on extras.

I'm thinking that I will do the Happy Herbivore Sweet Potato Soup from EHH. I have some fresh ginger in my cupboard that is begging to be used. Maybe that will be dinner. It is a really good soup, I have made it before. So easy and filling.

I need to study more, it keeps nagging me in the back of my mind. I think when I get back I will study Continuum Mechanics. Very interesting course, I do like my dynamic fluids.

Anyhow, TTYL

First Post

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my first blog post. I think this blog will be about my studies in CompSci, my cat Muxie, and my adventures in vegan cuisine.

I also like knitting, and other crafty things, as well as, playing the piano. I have an extensive vegan cookbook collection and like to read them like some people like to read novels.

As you can tell my interests are diverse.

Currently I am busy studying for finals. I think I got a hold on things; I'm pretty up to date on course material.

Muxie is busy destroying the place looking for toys, as usual.

I have to defrost my fridge/freezer as it is making an annoying buzzy sound every once in a while. So I have been eating my refridgerator to empty as much as I can. I am to the point where it is empty enough that all the food can fit in coolers, or is safe to remain unrefrigerated for a day.

Talk to ya later.