Tempeh Jam Sandwich

Seriously.

How have I not had this before?

Okay, honestly? The very idea of this sandwich kind of grossed me out. Tempeh, cheese and jam don’t sound like they go together. But oh, they so do. Trust me.

When I went vegetarian last September, I was most nervous about giving up sandwich meat. I know, it’s not the greatest, healthiest thing in the world, but I loved it. Boar’s Head oven gold turkey was where it was at. Going without hasn’t been so terrible, but I think I found a delicious new alternative.

Tempeh consists of fermented soybeans. You can eat it uncooked, steamed, sauteed, boiled, broiled, etc. It’s quite versatile and has a great texture. It’s heartier than tofu, but still takes on the flavors of whatever you choose to pair with it. Tempeh is also a great source of protein, fiber and vitamins! I’ve used it to replace things like McRib meat and tuna salad.

My sandwich was made of blood orange jam, gruyere cheese and three grain tempeh on a sandwich thin. However, any combination of jam, bread or cheese is fair game. The possibilities are endless!

I’ve had three of these sandwiches in three days. Is that weird? If so, my taste buds don’t really mind.

I think my next combination is going to be blackberry jam and melty brie. Any other combination suggestions?

World Market is my Lover

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I love World Market. Have I said that before?

I went on Saturday, and my shopping trip included plates (duh), blood orange jam, dandelion & burdock soda, zero calorie cream soda and a popsicle mold.

It’s rare that I let myself go a bit crazy in WM, because I will come out with half the store. No, really. I was eyeing some soap wrapped in fancy paper. Seriously. What do I need that for? I don’t.

Basil

I once again decided to try my hand at basil mommy. They were cheap at Trader Joe’s (just like the bottle of wine I somehow ended up with), and I’m sick of buying basil every week. My relationship with the plant last year came to a screeching halt when it basically grew out of control and I could not longer tame the basil bush. Hopefully this year will be a bit different?

I combined my purchases and christened the popsicle maker with strawberry-rhubarb basil popsicles. I simmered a bunch of strawberries and rhubarb together in some sugar water, blended them up after a few minutes of simmering, popped the mix back on the stove, added some chopped basil, let it cool and poured it into the mold. A few hours later, ta-da!

Three fruit popsicles and three coffee popsicles. Oh my word. The coffee popsicles were simply some french press coffee, cooled, mixed with a bit of rice milk and raw sugar. Yum.

This little treat is my new favorite breakfast item. Have I mentioned I live in South Carolina? Do you know the temperature outside in South Carolina, even at 8am? It’s freaking hot. I happily slurped on this cool treat this morning, alongside my usual green monster. Life was delicious.

I’ve also started a new series on Twitter called Monday Morning Happy Photo. Since Monday morning usually includes terror, fright, and general discomfort, I figure we could all use something happy and/or pretty to look at.

Speaking of series, I’m putting the whole food holiday thing on hold. My heart just isn’t in it, especially when they’re allllll desserts. I also feel like I’m wasting food sometimes, because I make these things and then neglect to eat them. A girl can only have so much dessert. If you have a problem with this, DEAL.

Anyway.

I can’t wait to try out more unique popsicle flavor combinations. Any suggestions? And anyone want to open a gourmet popsicle shop in Greenville? I’m only kind of kidding.

Today

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Why do facewash companies try to trick us?

Two bottles. One is brand, the other is generic. Price difference of about $1.50. Same. Exact. Ingredients. In the same order! I knew that this phenomenon was not uncommon. The generic version of some things (i.e. facewash, soap, even some foods) are sometimes exactly the same as the brand. I don’t think I’ve ever actually encountered this before. Guess which one I bought? That’s an extra $1.50 for my purse, thankyouverymuch.

Speaking of purses, why is it that we ladies seem to hoard things in there? Seriously, I felt like I should be on some obscure show called “How Much Stuff Can You Cram In Your Purse?” I cleaned it out today and found way more stuff than I need to be carrying around. A hardcover library book, several packets of raw sugar, dental floss and a receipt undoubtedly from San Diego? Please.

Despite the fact that I carry around Mary Poppins’ purse on a daily basis, I do sometimes make healthy decisions. I had a refreshingly delicious salad for lunch. I’ve discovered the key to great salads, for me, is lots of different flavors and textures.

Seven Layer Recovery Salad
In the mix:
Dinosaur kale, lightly steamed
Red, yellow and orange bell peppers, diced
Sunflower seeds
Cubed cooked tofu, marinaded in mmmm sauce
Broccoli, lightly steamed
Quinoa
Mmmm sauce

I call it a recovery salad because I’ve been eating things like onion rings and coconut milk ice cream lately. Not exactly the best for me, nutritionally. Good for my soul? Of course. Thighs? Not so much. This salad was so hearty and filling. I actually couldn’t eat the whole thing in one sitting and divided it up during the day. It kept me so full for so long.

Then I got home and gave myself a 50′s curly hairstyle.

Instagram. Get on it.

Vegan Baked Onion Rings

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Why is Mama Pea’s Mmm Sauce so delicious?

Well, to start, everything she makes is delicious.

I read about this sauce and it sort of reminded me of bitchin’ sauce, so I knew I had to make it. Oh my peas. Now I know why everyone in the blog world is going gaga over this sauce. I also discovered why it is called mmm sauce.

I stir fried some cubed tofu in it a few days ago. I had it atop a black bean burger and sweet potato fries last night. Today, I had it today with onion rings.

Baking

Vegan Baked Onion Rings (with mm dipping sauce)

Need:
one medium sized yellow or white onion
flax egg: 1/4 c ground flax seed + 1/2 c water
breadcrumbs + a bit cayenne + salt + pepper
all purpose flour
mmm sauce

Do:

Prep the onion by slicing it into rings. Try not to cry.
Set up a little station by putting the flax egg in one bowl, flour in another and the breadcrumb mixture in another.
Take each onion ring, dip it in the flax egg, then the flour, back to the flax egg and then in the breadcrumbs. It gets messy. But it’s so worth it.
Lay on a baking sheet (mine was dirty) and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until the edges start to look crispy.
Let cool and devour with mm sauce. Mmm.

I can’t remember the last time I had onion rings before today. I do remember one time in 2009 I went to a restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina with some friends and I ended up ordering something like 6 baskets of fried food. I was flirting with vegetarianism at the time, and I very mistakenly thought that eating only fried vegetables was a healthy vegetarian way. Uh. No. Anyway, I’m thinking onion rings were included in my smorgasbord of crispy organics.

The best onion rings are at the Varsity in Atlanta. They will absolutely give you a heart attack and they’re more of a once-a-year type treat. My version is nowhere near as greasy but eerily close to the deliciousness.

Light, refreshing, crispy. The perfect compliment to mm sauce. I just made a double batch of the sauce. I suggest you do the same.

In other, unrelated news, I have this song stuck in my head. Someone help me get it out?

Candlelight 5k 2011

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I was in no way ready for this race.

The past month or so I’ve sort of neglected running. It’s been a weird past month, schedule wise, due to the California vacation, silly work training and then a training in Minnesota. My schedule has been off and I’ve been in a funk.

I almost skipped out on this race because I had just flown home and was super tired. I took a three hour nap and woke up just in time to get to the race.

I had run this exact race two years earlier with my BFF and several co-workers from Starbucks.

This race is held at nighttime and the race course is lined with hundreds of luminaries. It is an absolutely beautiful run. It’s also not swelteringly hot outside at 9pm, which is nice.

I got to the course super early, as every single e-mail I received about the race was basically like GET HERE SUPER EARLY OR ELSE YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO PARK AND YOU’LL MISS THE RACE AND YOU’LL DIE.

Um.

So. I was there early. I walked around a bit, talked to my mom, warmed up, and ran around in the light drizzle that had started. I even saw a double rainbow!

Before I knew it, we were off! I picked a few people to catch up with during the race, and it worked! I maintained a steady pace for the first half of the race. The course is a loop, so the people at the back of the pack (aka me) were able to see the first finishers twice throughout the course. It was really motivating.

It also helped seeing this little cone!

I didn’t push too hard and just ran what I felt comfortable because honestly I wasn’t in the best shape. I finished in 41:19, which is not great for me, but leaves lots of room for improvement. Speed workout anyone?

Afterwards I had my first frozen yogurt bar experience, which was freaking delicious and a wonderful way to cool down after the sticky run.

Coconut and pomegranate froyo topped with granola, strawberries, blueberries and bananas. DELISH.

Overall I’m glad I did this race. It’s the only race I’ve run twice, and hopefully I can run it next year to make it three!

Minnesooohta

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I’ve been devouring things like this:

A little too many of these:

I discovered the wonder of this tasty treat:

I’ve been wearing ridiculous rain boots like this:

Gawking at things like this:

Today I got one of these:

Tomorrow I go to one of these:

So I can replace that drink with this:

And so I can run this:

Screen shot 2011-06-17 at 11.22.06 PM.png

And get back home:

To this:

Lobster and Sunburns

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I have been blessed with some lovely little genes that dictate the ridiculous degree to which my skin gets burned.

It seems like if I’m outside for 30 seconds, I end up with some sort of pinkish tinge. Thirty minutes? Forget it. I’m a lobster.

(source)

The first bad sunburn I can remember happened when I was a senior in high school. I lived in New Jersey and it was senior skip day. My boyfriend at the time and I went to the beach and laid there for hours. I wore something like SPF 8. That was silly.

(Are you noticing a pattern of me and silly decisions?)

After that, I was more conscious of the sunscreen I was wearing and the time I spent in the sun, but only by a bit.

Furman used to host this big event called Beach Weekend every year, where the entire school would drive down to Myrtle Beach and party it up for the weekend. I’ll give you one guess as to what happened.

Burned.

When I went to San Diego, I decided to be smart and bought and applied SPF 30. It seemed to do the trick because I didn’t feel burned after leaving the beach. We all know that sunburn can creep up on you a few hours later, and boy did it hit me.

Even though I applied sunscreen, I put jeans on shortly afterward and I think the combination of the jeans and sitting down rubbed it right off the back of my legs. It was not a pretty sunburn. I now have some crazy looking tan lines.

Moral of the story: It’s not really better to become a lobster than to eat lobster. I’m making a dermatologist appointment ASAP. Always wear way more sunblock than you think necessary. And SPF 8 don’t do shit.

Join me as I attempt to celebrate all the ridiculous food holidays! You can ~~laugh at~~ check on my progress and learn all about the challenge here.

West Coast VIII: Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice Beach & Marina Del Rey

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Sam and I got up well-rested on Saturday morning and plotted out our day.

We went to Hollywood Boulevard, parked and just started walking. We stumbled upon the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theatre, the cement handprints, and other classic LA tourist spots.

Harry Potter handprints! Yesterday you learned that I love Disney, today you learn that I am enamored with the anything Harry Potter.

Frank Sinatra and Julie Andrews’ hand/foot prints.

Sam and I went on the tour of the Chinese theatre, which was pretty cool. We learned about some of the neat history and got to view one of the biggest movie theatre screens.

Marilyn Monroe’s hand/foot prints. Note the 53!

The Walk of Fame went all up and down Hollywood Boulevard. Sam and I walked and walked and we still didn’t get to the end.

Some of my favorites: Rugrats (!!), Mister Rogers & Walt Disney. Of course.

We even spotted some Space Invader street art! So cool, especially after seeing the movie Exit Through The Gift Shop.

We found an adorable little secondhand bookstore, all movie/cinema/TV/film/entertainment related. I didn’t end up getting anything, but we spent quite some time reading about behind the scenes of popular films.

OBSESSED. I loooooooved the Wizard of Oz as a kid! Okay, I still love the Wizard of Oz. These were life-sized wax figures loitering outside of one of the museums.

We went to a smoothie/ice cream place where Sam and I got smoothies to sip on as we walked around. I got a really delicious banana honey oat smoothie. Strange combo, but good.

If you’ve ever been to Hollywood Boulevard, you know that it is a) always super crowded/touristy and b) crawling with tour guides trying to get you to go on celebrity house tours. They tours aren’t super cheap and Sam and I had little desire to see the fence at a celebrity’s house. Literally every ten feet, someone would come up to us and ask us about going on a tour. Sam and I decided to make it a game and ~~harass~~ talk to as many tour guides as we could. It was crazy what these guys would do to try and get you on the tour. We asked all sorts of stupid questions like “Is that open-top tour bus even safe? How many people have died on the tour?” to “How many celebrities can we meet on the tour? I only want to go if we can meet them.” to “Who is Elvis Presley? Can we meet him?” We got one guy down to ten bucks before he figured out our little game, told us we were full of shit and to go home. It.was.hilarious.

We drove up to the Hollywood sign after messing with the tour guides. It was so beautiful up there.

WANT. This garage was painted to mimic a bookshelf. So neat.

We drove by Rodeo Drive and gawked at the fancy stores.

And ended up at the Santa Monica Pier to watch the sunset.

We didn’t go on any rides because they were overpriced, and it was SO WINDY on that pier. Since the sun was setting, it was getting cold too! We were feeling a bit hungry so we walked around and found a place to eat.

Surprise, surprise, we ended up at another Italian place. I had butternut squash ravioli in a butter sage sauce. SO creamy and comforting. The sage was crispy and complimented the soft ravioli well.

Sam got a classic, spaghetti and red sauce.

Sunday was a chill day. We decided to hang out near the hotel in Marina Del Rey, walk up the boardwalk to Venice Beach and just relax with no real plans.

We found a cute little breakfast cafe just a short walk away from the hotel. Sam got coffee and I got a carrot/orange/yogurt blend that tasted just like a creamsicle.

The egg salad and avocado sandwich looked good, so I went with that. It was basically a vegan nightmare, but it was so tasty. I’ve been craving a good egg salad like that ever since.

Sam got some turkey/ham combo on french toast bread and fruit.

These things were kind of creepy. They were all over the sky! We actually watched one plane make one. Still haven’t figured out why they were there or what they meant.

After breakfast and a quick stop at Starbucks (duh), we walked up and down the boardwalk at Venice Beach. There were street performers and trashy beach shops all up and down the coastline. Neat to look at, but not really my cup of tea anymore.

After walking along the super chilly boardwalk for a bit, we decided to take a nap and then go see a movie. We weren’t dying to see anything else in LA, but we were dying to see Bridesmaids!

We ate before the movie at a rustic little panini cafe. I had a portobello mushroom/vegetable panini with gazpacho. The gazpacho was a little bit too garlicky for my taste (I didn’t think that was possible either) but the sandwich was delicious.

We had to have a little something sweet, so we got chocolate chip cookies.

They were fresh out of the oven and so yummy!

After dinner we saw Bridesmaids (which was sooo funny, highly recommended!), went to Barnes and Noble and crashed early. We had to get up super early the next morning for my flight home! Wahhh!

The views out of the plane were stunning. We went over the Rocky Mountains and possibly part of the Grand Canyon? Whatever it was, it was gorgeous.

I had a connection in Chicago and snapped a quick shot of the city as we we were landing. Next time I’ll have to give Chicago a proper visit.

All in all my vacation was absolutely wonderful and exactly what I needed. I’m a firm believer in taking some sort of vacation/trip at least once a year (money and time permitting), just to get out, relax and experience a new place. I loved everything about this trip, from the food, the culture and the good friend I had by my side.

While the end of a vacation is sad, it only means the plans for another one can begin!

West Coast VIII: Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice Beach & Marina Del Rey

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Sam and I got up well-rested on Saturday morning and plotted out our day.

We went to Hollywood Boulevard, parked and just started walking. We stumbled upon the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theatre, the cement handprints, and other classic LA tourist spots.

Harry Potter handprints! Yesterday you learned that I love Disney, today you learn that I am enamored with the anything Harry Potter.

Frank Sinatra and Julie Andrews’ hand/foot prints.

Sam and I went on the tour of the Chinese theatre, which was pretty cool. We learned about some of the neat history and got to view one of the biggest movie theatre screens.

Marilyn Monroe’s hand/foot prints. Note the 53!

The Walk of Fame went all up and down Hollywood Boulevard. Sam and I walked and walked and we still didn’t get to the end.

Some of my favorites: Rugrats (!!), Mister Rogers & Walt Disney. Of course.

We even spotted some Space Invader street art! So cool, especially after seeing the movie Exit Through The Gift Shop.

OBSESSED. I loooooooved the Wizard of Oz as a kid! Okay, I still love the Wizard of Oz. These were life-sized wax figures loitering outside of one of the museums.

We went to a smoothie/ice cream place where Sam and I got smoothies to sip on as we walked around. I got a really delicious banana honey oat smoothie. Strange combo, but good.

We drove up to the Hollywood sign after messing with the tour guides. It was so beautiful up there.

WANT. This garage was painted to mimic a bookshelf. So neat.

We drove by Rodeo Drive and gawked at the fancy stores.

And ended up at the Santa Monica Pier to watch the sunset.

Surprise, surprise, we ended up at another Italian place. I had butternut squash ravioli in a butter sage sauce. SO creamy and comforting. The sage was crispy and complimented the soft ravioli well.

Sam got a classic, spaghetti and red sauce.

Sunday was a chill day. We decided to hang out near the hotel in Marina Del Rey, walk up the boardwalk to Venice Beach and just relax with no real plans.

We found a cute little breakfast cafe just a short walk away from the hotel. Sam got coffee and I got a carrot/orange/yogurt blend that tasted just like a creamsicle.

The egg salad and avocado sandwich looked good, so I went with that. It was basically a vegan nightmare, but it was so tasty. I’ve been craving a good egg salad like that ever since.

Sam got some turkey/ham combo on french toast bread and fruit.

These things were kind of creepy. They were all over the sky! We actually watched one plane make one. Still haven’t figured out why they were there or what they meant.

After walking along the super chilly boardwalk for a bit, we decided to take a nap and then go see a movie. We weren’t dying to see anything else in LA, but we were dying to see Bridesmaids!

We had to have a little something sweet, so we got chocolate chip cookies.

They were fresh out of the oven and so yummy!

After dinner we saw Bridesmaids (which was sooo funny, highly recommended!), went to Barnes and Noble and crashed early. We had to get up super early the next morning for my flight home! Wahhh!

The views out of the plane were stunning. We went over the Rocky Mountains and possibly part of the Grand Canyon? Whatever it was, it was gorgeous.

I had a connection in Chicago and snapped a quick shot of the city as we we were landing. Next time I’ll have to give Chicago a proper visit.

While the end of a vacation is sad, it only means the plans for another one can begin!

Strawberries

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I was never into Strawberry Shortcake as a kid.

I mean, I was into the food (because let’s face it. What food am I NOT into?) but not the character. My mom says I had both a strawberry shortcake doll and a blueberry (shortcake?) doll, but I have no memory of this.

(source)

I, however, do have memory of those spongey little circle cakes that you fill with syrup and strawberries, then top with whipped cream. My family would have those every so often for a dessert, and I distinctly remember my mom only liking the strawberry sauce.

I’m a little overloaded with desserts right now, so I picked up a strawberry Odwalla. I could use the antioxidants as I will be traveling the next couple days! Much better than a loaded strawberry shortcake.

I’ll leave you with two of my favorite strawberry recipes: the Hippie “Neapolitan Ice Cream” Parfait and a Strawberry Feta Salad. Both are cool and super refreshing.

Join me as I attempt to celebrate all the ridiculous food holidays! You can laugh at check on my progress and learn all about the challenge here.

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