The Promise of Noms to Come

I have been MIA! We are having huge issues with our internet that began when we moved back in June. We are going on a month without internet in the apartment so I am online much less often. What has happened in that time?

Drake the cat has been helping us set up the nursery.

• We have eaten delicious homemade food- without the internet, we have spent a lot more time cooking and baking.
• I bought and fell in love with the Peas and Thank You cookbook. Everything has been delicious and I am saving these meal photos for a separate post.
• I re-visited an old cookbook- College Vegetarian Cooking. It is simple to vegan-ize all of these recipes and with most we have had great luck! 
• I stopped eating dairy after having cheese for a few months. The exception right now? Nutella. :o/
• My diet has become a lot more raw and heavy on fruits and veggies in an attempt to do a low salt diet because my blood pressure is starting to send up some red flags. 
• Second trip ever to Whole Foods. Worth the two hour drive! My only qualm is how expensive the buffet food was, but it was delicious, especially the Indian options. 
• Our old slow cooker broke and my mom has given us hers! Lots of slow cooker meals in our future for yummy fall food especially now that I am working again. 
• I have been planning many blog posts and I promise to upload them soon!

Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

I think we are finally over our muffin-phase. These are peach cobbler muffins!

Not the prettiest food, but hubby loved this slow cooker chili with TVP!

Egg-Less Eggplant Parmesan

Semi-Vegan Eggplant Parmesan. We nix the eggs but keep the cheese- however, the cheese could easily be Daiya or some nutritional yeast concoction! We don't really follow a recipe but this is how we have learned to make it work:

The eggplants or aubergines were long and skinny so we ended up cutting strips. On the left if the egg replacement. The proportion we use for this is:

1 tablespoon ground flax seed ~ 2 tablespoons water

Stir and let it sit for a few minutes. It was soak and become thicker. Dip in the strips and then drench in breadcrumbs. 

Set in the frying pan on a high setting, otherwise they will become soaked in the oil. Flip when golden brown.

Ian whipped up this sauce. It is just tomato paste, basil from the garden, oregano, sugar, garlic powder, and onion powder.

The finished product with a couple servings missing! Basically, layer eggplant, sauce, and cheese or cheese-like substance. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let sit before serving. Nom!

Farmer's Market Haul, Meal Photos, Meal Plans, Baby Bump

My camera battery died and since we moved recently, it took me a while to find the charger. So, I missed out on taking a lot of food and grocery haul pictures and this post is a jumble of things from this week. I went food shopping at Food Lion, Target, and the local organic store with beaucoup couponage, though it didn't help with my effort to grocery shop less often. 

Here is my farmer's market loot from today. We didn't need much because we have most of what we bought last week:

Peaches, canteloupe, black walnuts, and some kind of peppers

Meal Plan for This Week 

Falafel with Edamame Hummus

Quinoa Burgers with Spinach

Paddy Pan Squash (Possibly Pasta?)

Eggplant Parmesan

Leftovers Night

Gardein "Chicken" Tenders and French Fries

Marinated Portabella Burgers

The one and only tomato growing on our balcony garden! So red! And all squishy because it's heirloom.

Vegans, look away! The next two meals are dripping with cheese. It was that kind of week.

I refilled these staples from bulk containers from the local organic store. Yes, vegan chocolate chips are a staple for me.

Baby Bump at 18 weeks, 1 day! Definitely its biggest so far!

NYC Trip and Restaurant Review

For our birthdays, we splurged for tickets to a Broadway show! Hubby's never been to one and I haven't since high school. It was going to be a longer trip, but because of the baby on the way we decided to save money and make it a day trip. We drove ourselves and paid $80-$100 in tolls, ridiculous.

I did my research beforehand for vegan places to eat on other blogs. Unfortunately, they are all far from our theatre and we didn't want to take the metro. I was so excited to find Otarian restaurant  on Happy Cow.net! just a few blocks from the theatre and where we parked. 

Otarian is a small restaurant with locations in New York and London. All food is appropriate for lacto-vegetarians meaning the only animal derived ingredient you will find is dairy. However, most food is already vegan and if it comes with cheese you can get it made vegan. Most items are gluten free. All are free of nuts and some other allergens and if you order something Asian-y it is made with tamari instead of soy sauce which contains wheat.

Otarian hails itself as the only carbon-free restaurant. Everything is compostable and nothing is air-freighted to them. Best of all it is delicious and reasonably-priced! Most foods are lunch appropriate (wraps, burgers, salads) and some you can buy premade but the "hearties" could satisfy a dinner such as lasagna and Indian entrees.

No trashcans or recycling cans here!

Of course, we scarfed our meals before I thought to take pictures. I ate a Sweet Potato Falafel Wrap which is served cold. It was yummy but don't go in expecting a taste at all like falafel. The hummus was good but I did not care for the carrot chutney sauce. Hubby ate a Tex Mex burger which was not vegan and he loved it. We both had french fries with a delicious homemade barbeque sauce.

This is called "Choco Treat" Vegan but not gluten free. Mmmm!

Chocolate mouse! So rich and yummy with chocolate chunks. Gluten free but not vegan (contains dairy).

Combining both of the desserts was the BEST!

The Broadway Show was saw was Book of Mormon, a comedy by the writers of South Park and the musical Avenue Q which we already love. It was excellent!

In the lobby waiting for the show to start. You can't see my belly or dress :o(

Cast sign outside the theatre doors...yeah, we waited there for 2 hours for the air conditioning!

There's Baby Squiggles!

Mostly Vegan Grocery Haul and Meal Plans

To be accountable, I am posting what I bought at one grocery shopping trip. I went to Shoppers which is my least favorite- less organic and vegan and local than Food Lion and the organic store- but it was convenient for where I had to run errands.

Our breakfasts and lunches are on our own, but here is what we will eat for dinner this week, along with salads hopefully. All meals are vegan except the pesto pasta will have parmesan cheese.

• Pesto Pasta with Peas 
• Indian Chickpeas with Rice and Samosas
• Broccoli, Mashed Potatoes, Morning Star 'Chikn' Strips
• Veggie Stir Fry with Brown Rice
• Falafel
• Veggie Risotto
• Potato and Avocado Tacos 

Vegan stuff for lunches and snacks. Potato chips, bbq potato chips,  rice noodles, triscuits, tons o' hummus, wraps.

A ridiculous amount of dairy. Really unhealthy.The Annie's are from Target- everything else I bought there was not food.  Unfortunately, no dairy within hours of where I live is organic or other more pleasant labels. Cheddar, provolone, parmesan, and port wine cheese, cheddar crackers, cheesy potatoes.

The produce at our particular store is not so great in quality or selection but here is what I was able to get. Squash, broccoli, green onions, baby spinach, button mushrooms, green beans, russet potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, onion, corn

Other things. It was hard to find good fruit but I got blueberries, bananas, and a lime. The tortillas are for tacos and I was out of canola oil, though I usually like to get the Spectrum brand.

What I needed for this week and could not find or could not find in good quality. Bummer that I have to use gas to go to another store but so be it. I would love to get more things from the farmer's market but we keep going out of town when those occur.

• Veggie broth
• Peas
• Lettuce
• Whole grain pasta
• Low-sodium tortilla chips
• Ginger
• Avocados
• Strawberries, pears, peaches
• Asparagus
• Pita bread

Confessions!

The fast version:

1) I'm PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!

2) I ate cow dairy for two weeks.

The lengthy version:

1) I am growing my very first baby! I am 10 weeks, 3 days along. I found out (surprise!) right around 6 weeks. We are head over heels in love! Baby! It has had ups and downs and scares but we have come out of each one alright. I will definitely be writing about my pregnancy as it relates to food and maybe other blogs about it if anyone is interested. I have always loved pregnancy blogs/vlogs myself. It is especially a big deal for us because I've been told since I was 11 that I would probably never conceive because of endometriosis. I never gave up hope of becoming a momma and here we are :o)

Meet Baby Squiggles! at 6 wks, 6 days

2) It's true. Soooo I was totally completely vegan for 6 months until I finally had a cheese craving. That was the last thing I gave up in December and try as I have, I cannot find a vegan cheese I can tolerate. About two months into pregnancy, a few weeks after I found out I was pregnant, I got intense dairy cravings. This is when I was sickest, constantly hungry but most foods including ones I used to love made me ill. I think the craving was from needing fat, as I was turned off to nuts, avocados, and oil entirely. I gave in and had some dairy over the course of two weeks. Now, I am less sick and have no more cravings. I do not feel good about eating dairy- it's not good for me or Baby Squiggles, and caused suffering to numerous cows and human laborers. At the time, it made me feel totally better plus I am no longer lactose intolerant due to the pregnancy. I had been been vegan for long and my body remembered how I got my fat before and insisted I do it again for the baby. So be it, it is done.

I came out really hard against Natalie Portman for de-veganizing in her pregnancy. Now I totally understand. Pregnancy takes over your entire being and you cannot fight it. If you feel the need, you do put your survival (and therefore baby's) before everything. I guess the difference is if she returns to being vegan or not, which I already have. I also know that there are pregnant vegans who remain so. Alicia Silverstone and perfect I am not, but I am trying my very very best to have the healthiest and most vegan pregnancy I can, I am back on track, and as my baby daddy (husband and partner of seven years) Ian continues to remind me, I am eating amazingly compared to a lot of pregnant people. Details in another post!