Hump It

Check out these tasty morsels (always and forever ruined by QQ) I made *snobby voice* from scratch this weekend:


Strawberry-banana muffins

Also, let this license plate be your entree.

Hump It

Labor Day I got crunk in Spades and Boca chicken nuggets with veg. baked beans and homemade fries courtesy of my mother-in-law. Also contemplating big changes for the future. It's that weird time period where stuff is about to happen and you gotta ride the wave. But which one to ride? Hmmm.

I am also now hooked on Law and Order. I saw Benjamin Button for the 1st time and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

Breaded Tofu, Baked Macaroni and "Cheese"

This is the 1st week of school at my job AND I have a deadline of Friday to turn in some important stuff for my thesis so I'll be blogging all sorts of random nonsense after that. In the meantime...GETCHU SUMMA THIS!

Breaded tofu from the cookbook 'The Garden of Vegan'...made with a BAWSE ASS breading and spice recipe then pan fried.

Baked Mac n "Cheese" made from a mixture of soy cheese, macaroni shell pasta, cornstarch, nutritional yeast, soymilk, and breadcrumbs baked in the oven. From this vegweb recipe, but I changed some of it.

I served some peas with this too. No recipe. :-/

Yum-Type Dinner

Boca Chikn patty, green bean casserole, mashed sweet and regular potatoes. I felt so proud tonight, this meal was full of YUM. This was my first attempt at making my own mashed potatoes, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I don't know why I always assumed making mashed potatoes was complicated.

Surfside Sunday

For some reason I keep forgetting what a wealth of treasures Texas has to offer regarding nature. I went to Surfside, TX today with Crabby and our friends and friend-family. We had a blast! (Blast is one of those words that always makes me giggle because it's so over-the-top) The water was shallow very far out and the waves were awesome, so we were just a-frolicking to our heart's content. I'm definitely going to keep exploring this big ass country state.

Stuntin' and mermaiding on all you hoes

Me and Crabby saltwater'd up

My hair post-oceanwater. The salt defines and separates the curls so crazy-like.

Oh yeah, I saw District 9 on Friday. It was weird. Like, hella weird. I don't even know what else to say about it. I enjoyed it overall, but wouldn't want to see it again. The beginning was really blatant with comparisons to current world issues and that annoyed me. After that, it was just weird man. Has anyone else seen it yet?

Frito Pie

~It has come to my attention that many people outside of Texas have no idea what a Frito Pie is. Upon learning this news, I clutched my pearls, fell back against the wall and slid down sobbing. The f*** y'all mean y'all don't know what a Frito Pie is?! So it is my job to educate the masses. If you want the non-vegan version, I invite you to accept Google as your Lord and Savior.

~Growing up, Frito Pies were part of pretty much every Texan child's memories. Bowling alleys, skating rinks, various events were associated with the little Fritos bag opened with steaming hot chili and a fork inside.

~My vegan version is adapted a bit from the childhood frito pies. I use:

-Fritos

-Amy's Vegetarian Chili (the green can, medium level of spiciness)

-Diced tomatoes

-Nooch for that creamy, cheesy type taste

-Boca Ground Beef Crumbles

~Combine everything except the Fritos in a pot and heat. Pour some over a bowl-o-Fritos. Nom to death. Be satisfied.

~Dearest bloggies, won't you make a Frito Pie with me this summer? They're also good in winter. I swear to you they taste like liberty and justice for all. You're welcome.

Irresistable B****, Let's Go. Where We Goin'?

20,000 points to anyone who knows where that line is from!

I went to Marlin, TX last weekend for a family reunion on my husband's mother's side of the family. This quote about Marlin from Wikipedia did me in: "At the census in 2000, Marlin had a population of 6,628, a increase of 242 more people from 1990, when the census said Marlin had a population of 6,386. Things went downhill from there." It was relaxing and country. Got crunk in several games of Spade. Ate some fries. Drank a Pibb. Watched people of all ages sing hymnals and later do the Stanky Leg.

At a gas station on the way...what in the Soylent Green hell is "Potted Meat Food Product"? Reason #4869 I do not eat meat, right here.

Monday I started my workout plan, it was a pretty good beginner work-out, but I've had a cold or cold-like symptoms all week so I haven't been back yet. It's on next week though! I have stuck to my no soda during the week rule though, so big ups to me. I've been cooking. Last night I cooked this tasty morsel (I hate you, QQ) for your delight:

Linguine with broccoli, diced tomatoes, diced red and green bell peppers; lemon-herb tofu pan-fried (got the recipe from here) and some bread for nomming purposes. The bread was mid-nom when this picture was taken, my bad.

Notes From The Weekend

*Bought tickets to see Erykah Badu in concert in March. So. Excited.

*I studied with a few classmates who all smoke (3 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday). This morning I noticed small red blemishes on my face. My precious face. They've tarnished it with their cancer sticks, tarnished it I say!

*I feel good about attempting to live more simply and healthier. Gave up cable and fast food and giving up items that serve no function around the house.

*In search of some fine bed linens. I want the white, hotel look.

*Check the poll in the sidebar. Out of 10 votes, only 2 consider Sunday as the start of a new week. Interesting.

*Upcoming book review blog post soon (maybe Wednesday if I have the chance).

*While looking at different funeral home websites for a research project, I stumbled upon this gem. He is apparently a DJ in addition to his funeral home duties. "We can funeralize your loved one at a price from..." and "This ain't no ranky-dank funeral home. This is a first class funeral home run by first class people" are sending me to an early grave myself. Please look at his website. For me. I am not responsible if you fade to black after you view it.

*Here is a recipe I cooked up. This was so full of yum due to the different seasonings:

Rigatoni with zucchini, diced tomatoes, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers. Used nutritional yeast to give it an almost parmesan flavor (you can find it in the bulk aisle of natural-food grocery stores and regular well-stocked grocery stores and it's full of vitamin B12), red pepper flakes, and chicken seasoning (which is basically paprika, garlic, onion, pepper, and some other spices). SO. YUMMY.

Weekend Observations

1. On my way to meet a friend for lunch, I saw (while driving) what appeared to be a small dog on a sidewalk. Since I love dogs, I tried to catch a closer look at it while I passed by. Upon closer inspection, it was a bird. A freakin bird. Like, a bird of prey. Like, a falcon, hawk, condor, phoenix, pterodactyl type bird. It was standing on the sidewalk (I think it was trying to eat something) looking at traffic. This was on a busy street surrounded by expensive condos. Freaked me right the hell out.



2. In the checkout line at Target, the woman behind me had a giraffe tattoo on her chest. Imagine someone drawing a giraffe on a sheet of paper. Think of how long the neck is. She had on a v-neck shirt, and the giraffe's head was high on her chest, and the long neck extended down under her shirt. That thing was drawn to scale like a muhfugga. It was actually kind of awesome. Definitely the most random tattoo I have ever seen.



3. I went to see The Reader last night. My husband and I are often the token black people in the movies we go see, this movie was no exception. The Reader was in a small theater. The audience was mostly 40 years and older white people. Everyone lined up in an orderly fashion (there was no need to) and waited until the cleaning people left and filed orderly through the doors. It was very interesting. Most movies with a younger audience (that was not a huge blockbuster film) would not see this same decorum.


I ended up sitting next to this elderly couple who said pretty much every thought that came to mind while watching the movie. Examples:

*Pile of shoes appear on the screen. Elderly lady: "Oh, shoes..."
*Picture is placed on a wall. Elderly lady: "Is that (main character) in the picture?"
*Building appears on screen. Elderly man: "What is that?" Elderly woman: "Oh, that's the church. I wonder if it's the same one from earlier."
*Random scene. Elderly woman: "Burps...mmm." (She did this at least twice. I was beyond horrified).
*Other scene. Elderly woman: "Is she going to climb that? Oh, no..."

I have never wanted to murk an elderly person or persons like I wanted to murk this couple. I wanted to load them onto a catapult and launch them into a screening of Notorious.

4. I planned my monthly vegan menu and just cooked a very satisfying dinner tonight. Linguine with sauteed green and red peppers, tomatoes, and broccoli; and sauteed lemon-herb tofu. Yummers!

Vegan Xmas-Now with Pics!

This semester I hadn't been able to cook very much with a full-time job and an extra-full load of graduate courses, so I was understandably a little crunk about cooking for the holidays (I had Thai noodles and french fries on Thanksgiving...yeah). So here is the very amateur yet muy delicioso vegan feast I cooked:


Clockwise from turquoise bowl:
White bean salad: Great Northern beans, red and green peppers, balsamic vinegar, olive oil (doesn't need to be heated...ChocolateOrchid, this is for you! I think this qualifies as raw, correct me if I'm wrong).
Marinated and fried tofu: Extra-firm tofu, olive oil, garlic, your choice of spices for the marinade...I used season salt, thyme, savory, basil, dill, rosemary, and some other spices.
Baked ziti: Ziti-pasta, diced tomatoes, bread crumbs, olive oil, homemade vegan alfredo sauce (soy milk, soy butter, pepper, flour) baked in the oven for about half an hour.
Corn: Just some ghetto corn in a pot, lol.
Broccoli: Nothing more to see here folks.
Not pictured: Vegan cornbread and Mr. Pibb.

My blog posts may be a little paltry for the next few days. I work at a university and it's closed from Christmas Eve until January 5 so I am RELISHING this break, doing your typical beached whale/sloth activities.

Holiday Cooking

I am trying to plan my holiday menu. I think so far, I want to cook (and eat!) the following:

marinated & fried tofu cutlets (found in How It All Vegan)
white bean salad (with white beans, green and red peppers, garlic, balsamic vinegar dressing)
green bean casserole (vegan version)
corn
rolls
baked ziti (found on the Barilla website)

This is just the bare bones version...I will be surfing VegWeb for more ideas.

Are you cooking for the holidays? If so, what are you cooking?