3 Steps to Happiness

One of the most famous vegan blogs I follow is run by an energetic, and chocolate-covered girl named Katie. The best thing about her recipes (besides being nutritious and super yummy) is how simplistic they are. She takes real, honest ingredients and cooks them in simple ways that are always amazing! Today, in preparation for my lunch tomorrow made a batch of banana butter. I got hooked on this recipe in the summer time, if you make it you will see why. It doesn't sound like much, sure, it's only banana and peanuts. When I first explained it to my best friend she said "I don't think I want that."

And then she tried it.

All you need is a few tablespoons of natural peanut butter, (you don't need the sugar salt or extra oils, people!) a banana, and some sort of blending device. 

There are three steps:

Step 1: Place ingredients in blending device

BEFORE

 Step 2: Blend

AFTER

Step 3: Spread on toast and enjoy in an all-white room with your significant other

Awwwww

This is what I ate on cue-to-cue day

This picture was taken on the day we did the cue to cue for Charlie Brown.

I arrived in the theatre at 8AM and left at 7:30. The rest of the tech team and I spent the entire school day hanging, focusing and gelling lights, and literally placed the last gel in the light 4 minutes before we began our cue-to-cue. 

With a schedule so tight, no one has time to leave and purchase meals (coffee however…) 

So I have to plan ahead. This is everything I ate that day, all neatly packed the night before. 

There was:

• 1 pear
• 1 banana
• Baggie of trail mix 
• Sandwich with: sun dried tomato and currie lentil veg burger from Community 
• Spinach salad with: avocado, cucumber, pear, sprouts, cashews with homemade tahini-lemon dressing 
• Coconut-portobello pasta from The Coup cookbook 
• 1 chocolate coconut Larabar 
• 1 water bottle full of unsweetened almond milk 

There was also an obscene amount of espresso- it was a busy day. 

It is a strange experience planning out all my meals and snacks for an entire day (except breakfast, which was carrot oatmeal, if you care) but it does allow me to plan a balanced diet for the day, which is so so so important when you're working hard at something stressful. 

There you go! This is what I ate that day.  

So, it's been three months

The musical I have been working on since the last week of august just wrapped. It was pretty awesome. I ate a lot of things in the past three months. Here are some of the things:

• larabars; especially the key lime pie flavour
• indian spiced potatoes, and some lentil stuff I made for a potluck 
• gyoza 
• chai tea cupcakes 
• forbidden rice w/portobellos
• peanut butter with pretzels
• lots of coffee

Even though it has been three months, and this blog only has four followers, and they have all probably lost faith in me, I have decided to blog more. I'm going to focus on things I eat on a day to day basis to show people veganism isn't boring! 

I also just found out blogger will let me change the name of my blog as often as I want. Be prepared for that.

I'm back! 

Red-Rose Vegan Cupcakes

Okay these pictures are really old, but these cupcakes were too cute not to share. I've just been really busy this month.
It's a red velvet cake batter that I found on vegweb, and they are topped with cashew 'creamcheese' icing that I found on veganbaking.net.  I candied fresh mint leaves from my garden with lemon juice and cane sugar for the garnish.

Vegan Eggs Bennie

When I woke up yesterday morning, there was no debating what I wanted to eat. Eggs Bennie! Considering Eggs Bennie traditionally consists of an english muffin, back bacon, a poached egg and hollandaise sauce (essentially: butter, egg yolks and lemon juice) veganizing it would take a little creativity.  If you take away all the animal ingredients you're left with an english muffin and lemon juice, and my house didn't have either. Off to a good start.

I did a little sleuthing around google and found this awesome recipe. I only followed the hollandaise sauce portion, halved the recipe, vetoed the veganaise, and swapped the lemon juice for apple cider vinegar.
I found the hollandaise to be the PERFECT consistency while it was in the pot. It actually had the right yellow tinge and it may have even tasted better than it's saturated fat-laden counterpart. I did leave the sauce on the heat a little too long and it separated, but it was delicious regardless.

For the egg portion I marinated some tofu slices in soy sauce and rice vinegar for about 20 minutes and then fried it up until browned in an olive-oiled skillet.

The recipe I looked up recommended using a vegan meat analogue, but I didn't think it was necessary so I doused some sliced tomatoes in Montreal steak spice and fried them up with the tofu.

When everything was all crispy and ready I piled it on top of toast and served it with some garlic home fries. It was so good I practically needed a smoke after. Just kidding, cigarettes are gross, and not vegan.

It tastes better than it looks

3 Simple Ways to Make Your Life Better Immediately

1. Add vanilla to your orange juice. 
Seriously you guys, I don't know why more people don't do this. Adding a splash of vanilla extract to your morning OJ quickly elevates it to crack food status. It tastes like a freshly squeezed creamsicle. 


2. Add cinnamon to your coffee. 
A sprinkle before it goes into the machine or french press is so yummy. I had a hard time weaning my self  of the cream and sugar, and the cinnamon really helps. It's also really good for your metabolism. 


3. MAKE BANANA BUTTER
Banana butter has sort of a cult following amongst vegan bloggers, why? Because its better than everything else. I found the recipe first here. It's creamy, sweet, rich, simple and healthy. All you do is blend a banana with a few tablespoons of peanut butter. If that doesn't sound good to you, just do it anyway. Seriously. 
Sometimes I freeze the banana first and make Banana Butter Ice "Cream"! 

Potato Pancakes, People

This morning I woke up at the crack of noon with a craving for two thing; hashbrowns and pancakes. So I settled for the best of both worlds. Potato Pancakes! My family has a variety of fresh herbs growing in pots on our veranda, but the seasons are changing and they won't be there for long so I just had to take advantage of the fresh rosemary. I used this basic recipe, subbed the white flour for chick pea flour, added cayenne instead of black pepper and added a generous helping of rosemary before frying them up over medium heat in a skillet.

Serve it up with some applesauce and hot sauce

 Instead of the suggested egg replacer I used one of my favourite foods ever: Flax! For those of you who don't know, Flax is actually made out of pure Himalayan grown MAGIC. Not only is it a fantasmical vegan source of Omega-3 and Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, it has amazing binding properties. Simply blend 1 tablespoon of flax seeds with 3 of water per egg you want to replace. Be warned though, it does have a distinctive 'flax' taste so it only works in certain foods, but it works perfectly in potato pancakes. 

Next time I'm going to try sweet potatoes, delicious! 

VIRGIN BLOG POST

Hi!
So, my name is Maren.
Lexi Loveseth is my bowling name/alter ego.
I was an ovo-lacto vegetarian for about 4 years before finally taking the next step on the cruelty free journey. I took the summer to phase out dairy and eggs, and am now la-la-loving this lifestyle change! Of course, I'd be lying if I said I was a total vegan, as EVERYTHING from shoes to shower curtains to sugar has been processed with/contains trace amounts of cruelty. The quest is constant and never ending.  I'm starting this blog as a way to chronicle this lifestyle as well as keep me on track.

I love food, and I especially love food that makes me feel good. The only thing that makes me feel better than good food is good theatre! The majority of my waking life is spent in my high school theatre, and not in my kitchen. I need to make fast, delicious, healthy food that I can take with me into my day.

All that being said, lets have a muffin!

Vegan Coco-Pecan Corn Muffins
Yummy!