One Wild Chick Soup!

I finally got my hands on Eat Drink and Be Vegan by borrowing it from the library. Yesterday I made my first recipe from it: One Wild Chick Soup! It had chickpeas, wild rice, carrots, celery and herbs. It was a little bit on the bland side(maybe because I left out to salt), but in a good, comforting way, not in a disgusting tasteless way, if that makes any sense. I can't wait to try more recipes from this book!

A few days ago my family join the Pflugerville Rec Center. It has a weight room and an indoor(air conditioned!) track, and a basketball court. I've been wanting to start doing some strength training, so this is a great way to start. I've been doing pretty good with my walking and jogging, but what I really need is to tone and strengthen my muscles. And maybe it will help me get rid of the weight I've put on in the last 6 months. I'm not overweight, but I'm not thin like I used to be, and I have no muscle tone. I want to get in better shape.

Back From California!

It's been nearly two months since my last post. Oh my! But this time I'm not going to apologize because I've been busy with things that are more important than keeping up with this blog. These past two months sure have been eventful. I don't even know where to start!

Well, I finished all my financial aid stuff for college in February. I went to the two dinners required for the House of Commons co-op. I think I prefer Royal co-op, but if I apply to both I have a back up in case Royal is too full. I'm not even sure if I'm even going to UT yet, so I can't reserve a spot in either co-op until I decide, which could take until mid-April. By then Royal might be full since it can only take 17 people. I've also gotten two rejection letters. One was from the UT Engineering Honors program and the other was from MIT. The rejection from the honors program was very disappointing because I thought it was pretty much a given that I would get in. But apparently it's very competitive, especially for chemical engineering, which I applied to. And it seems to me that their decision is about 90% based on SAT scores. You basically have to 1500 or more (math+reading). I was not the least bit surprise about the rejection from MIT. However, a girl in my class got in and another guy was put on the wait list. The girl has a lower gpa and class rank than me, less extracurriculars(as far as I know), similar or possible slightly lower or higher SATs. I think the reason she got in, while I wasn't even waitlisted was that she's Hispanic. Oh well. Where I really want to go is UC Berkeley. I will find out if I get in there on March 27 (this Thursday!). Then on April 1, I will hear from Stanford. I'm not too optimistic about Stanford after my rejection from MIT, since Stanford has an even lower admission rate.

I've also been busy with school work and UIL. The first six weeks of the semester ended three weeks ago(1 week before spring break). I was surprised when I got my report card, because I literally got a 100 in every class. I always make good grades, but never perfect in every class! I've gone to two UIL competitions since my last post, one on Feb. 9 at Wimberly and one on Feb. 23 at Westwood, and district is next Saturday. At Wimberly, I really cleaned up! Our school got 1st place team in Mathematics, Calculator and Science. I got 4th place in Science, 1st in Calculator, and 2nd in Mathematics. Then at Westwood, which was a larger tournament with 5A schools, our team got 1st in Science and 2nd or 3rd in Calculator(I don't remember which). I also got 1st in Science and 3rd in Mathematics, with a 300 and 214, respectively, which are both personal records! I didn't do so hot in Calculator, though, only 143. I usually get around 170's or 180's in Calculator. At school, I recently met two sophomores at lunch that are vegetarians and would be vegans if their parents would approve. One of them notice that I was wearing a vegan freak t-shirt one day. Now I eat lunch with them everyday. It's so awesome!

On this past Tuesday, I came back from my trip to California. I went there on Tuesday the 11th, which was during my spring break, and had to miss Monday and Tuesday after spring break. California was wonderful! I saw Berkeley and Stanford and even visited some of the co-ops at Berkeley. I think I fell in love with Berkeley, both the school itself and the town. I really hope I get in and can afford to go there! The out of state fees make it quite expensive, especially compared to UT. In addition to seeing the schools, we also explored San Fransisco and went to Golden Gate Park, Muir Woods and Point Reyes. It was very hard to park and get around San Fransico. While there, we went to their amazing farmer's market and ate at Herbivore. I can't remember if we did much else there...most of our time was spent looking for parking! Herbivore was pretty good, but I was hard to enjoy it when we felt so rushed, since our parking meter had a 1 hour limit, including walking several blocks between the car and the restaurant. I ordered vegetable kabobs with soy chikin and quinoa and soy ice cream for dessert. Other than that, we didn't go to any restaurants because we wanted to save money. We ate hummus and pita for lunches and sometimes dinner, and we made a simple lentil dish that lasted for two dinners. We also ate lunch at one of the dining halls at Berkeley, where they had almost as many vegan options as omni options! Vegan pizza with vegan cheese, vegan hot dogs, vegan sloppy joes, vegan tacos,a nice salad bar, even a daily vegan dessert! The Whole Foods in Berkeley sold a variety of vegan cakes, vegan donuts, vegan donut holes and huge chocolate vegan cupcakes. I tried each one of these on the trip.

We weren't at Golden Gate park long, but we did see the Golden Gate bridge:


We saw a coyote at Point Reyes:

Here is a lighthouse at Point Reyes:

We also saw elephant seals:

Elk, but you can barely see them:

Deer:

Here's a picture from Muir Woods:

It was a pretty awesome trip!

Now here's a few food picture's I've taken.

This is a soup a made at the beginning of February. Sorry, I don't remember what it was!


These muffins are Susan's Berry and Spice Muffins. I made a few changes. I used date sugar in the topping and omitted the margarine, used all whole wheat pastry flour, and used an equal amount of agave nectar for the sugar. I also used unsweetened almond milk instead of soymilk. I asked Susan whether agave nectar could be substituted for the sugar, and she thought this might solve the dryness problem she had. It did! These were moist enough, but not too moist, and very delicious!

I made pancakes! I've never made pancakes before! These are the Banana Pecan Pancakes from VWAV. I used all w/w pastry flour, almond milk, omit the 1 T of oil, and used walnuts instead of pecans. I topped it with sliced bananas and pure maple syrup. My dad thought these were better than omni pancakes! At first I had trouble making these, but after the first few a got the hang of it.

I got Veganomicon from my mom for a valentines gift. I don't usually get valentines gifts, it was really just an excuse for her to get me this book since she knew I wanted it. I made the chickpea cutlets that everyone's been raving about and made a sandwich with Ezikel bread, lettuce, hummus, tomato, and a cutlet. I baked them it the oven. I really liked them, but my mom didn't because they were very chewy.


One Friday, I went to a Whole Foods "Eat-up" with the Vegans Rock Austin group. I've gone to one other meet up with them in January, to Mr. Natural. We ate at the flagship Wholefoods downtown this time. They have a buffet type area where you can get several different types of food and pay $7.99/lb. for all of it. I also got a sorbet and a slice of vegan Nutty Monkey Cake, and my Dad bought me Clif Nectar bars and a 365 brand vegan dark chocolate bar for Easter. Only my dad and I went, since my mom is very shy. Most of the members of the group are in their 20's or early thirties, so they were all older than me and younger than my dad. Despite the age difference, we still had a great time. It's great to meet other vegans in my area!
Well, I really have more to say, but I'll probably post about it later today or tomorrow morning before school. Have a great day everyone!

Soup!

Despite the cold weather, I haven't had soup in a long time. Until now! The day before yesterday I made a lentil soup recipe from one of my mom's magazines. I would post the recipe, but I can't find it right now! The original recipe called for ham (yuck) and celery, which we didn't have, so I left these two ingredients out. It also had carrots (which I doubled due to lack of celery), onions, garlic, spices, spinach, and a dried chipotle pepper. I thought I was going to be bland, but I was quite tasty.


Last night I made the Chipotle Corn Black Bean soup from Vive Le Vegan. Although the recipe said to blend it with a hand blend, I didn't do that because I like chunky soups. I liked it, and I especially liked the lime wedges squeezed over it. If you make this, don't leave that out!


At around noon today, after my mom gets out of work, my parents and I are going to Rockport. We'll be back Monday afternoon. See you then!

Vegetarian Harira

Yesterday I made Vegetarian Harira from the June issue of Cooking Light. I increased the amount of onions, cinnamon and fresh ginger because you can never have too much ginger and cinnamon. It was pretty good.

I've been reading Food for Life, and I'm really enjoying it, even though I already know most of the information presented in it. It's interesting to read books from slightly different perspectives confirming the value of a healthful vegan diet.

That's all for now. Have a good day everyone!

No, I didn't give up on this blog...

I've just been really busy as well as lazy these last few months. Now there's so much to blog about! I worked really hard this last semester, but it really paid off! I finished the school year with excellent grades in all of my classes and completed my service hour requirements for NHS. In UIL, I made it to district and regional and came so close to making state in Science. At district, I got 5th place in Calculator and 2nd in Science, and at Regional, I got 5th in Science. If I had just got to 3rd place, I could have gone to state! Oh well, next year I will surely go to state! I also took three AP tests. I haven't gotten the scores yet, but I feel pretty confident that I did well, especially in Chemistry.

I have been out of school since May 25th. A few days after school ended, my parents, my oldest brother and I went on a three week long vacation to the Washington/Oregon area. My other brother stayed home with the animals. Not that he minded- he hates vacations! Too much driving! It was great, and I literally have hundreds of pictures, which I will probably post some of tomorrow. We saw Seattle, Portland, Olympic National Park, Orcas Island, and numerous beaches. It was a great vacation, but maybe it was a little too long. By the end we were all getting on each other's nerves.

Then, I came back to Texas. It has been raining and raining and raining ever since I came back! When my dad and I went to volunteer at the humane society today to find out that the dog area had flood with a foot of water last night! At least the rain has kept it much cooler than usual though. The highs have been only in the 80's since we came back, which is very unusual.

Also, guess what else? In April, my parents went vegetarian! They did this in honor of my 17th birthday and have been vegetarian even since! Unfortunately, they are not vegan. I honestly don't think my mother could ever be vegan. She really enjoys chocolate and candy and store-bought baked goods, as well as cheese, and doesn't like soy milk on her cereal. My dad might be able to though. Just have to wait and see...

I've recently bough three vegan cookbooks: Vegan with a Vengence, The Everyday Vegan, and Vegan Lunchbox! I also checked out six cookbooks from the library, so be prepared to see a lot of recipes from cookbooks in the next few weeks. Here are three recipes I have made over the last few days:

First up, Red Curry Vegetable Stir-Fry from Real Vegetarian Thai by Nancie McDermott.





Very good and very spicy. Tofu, green beans, japanese eggplant, basil, red pepper, curry paste. I also added add handful of bean sprouts, though it was not called for in the original recipe. Served with steamed kale.

Next, Auntie Bonnie's Lively Lentil Stew from How it All Vegan! by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer.



This soup is really delicious. I really like lentil soups, and this one was no exception! I used several handfuls of spinach, rather than the half cup called for, and added in a few green beans we had layng around in the fridge.

And last but not least.... Lentils Rice Balls with Sneaky Momma's Tomato Sauce from Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer McCann.



These balls came together so well. They were easy to form and held their shape so well. And they were so delicious. The sauce was so flavorful! I used a can of crushed tomatoes instead of the tomato paste and whole canned tomatoes called for. I served the Lentil-rice Balls and Tomato Sauce along with some steamed broccoli for a lovely, delicious meal.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I will post tomorrow with more about the vacation as well as a delicious recipe.

Two Soups

I just found out that school is cancelled tomorrow! Yeah! (Of coarse, now we will have to make it up on the Friday before Easter) There wasn't a lot of ice today, just a little in the early morning that never melted because it stayed below freezing all day. Tomorrow, however, it's supposed to be much worse.

Today I made two different soups. I wanted to cook a lot of things this weekend and freeze some of them so I would have a quick, easy meal for nights when I have a lot of homework or don't want to cook. One was great, and the other was terrible! The former is pictured above. It is French Lentil and Portabella Stew from Fat Free Vegan. My adaptions: I halved it because I only had half a cup of lentils, water instead of broth, crimini mushrooms instead of portabella, left out the celery, used Yukon gold potatoes, and didn't use the wine.

Now for the terrible soup. I took a picture, but the picture is so horrible I didn't want to post it. It is called January Out-Of-The-Cupboard Lima Bean and Sun-Dried Tomato Soup from the Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon. With a name like that, I thought it would be the perfect soup for a cold, icy January day like today. But I was wrong. It was edible, but just barely. The main problem was it was way too salty. I guess the su-dried tomatoes I used had more salt in them than I thought. I usually don't use salt or eat processed food that has a lot of salt in it, so I'm not used to salty food. This recipe might actually be tasty if fresh or unsalted tomatoes were used.

Ethiopian Soup and Sorbet

I'm so glad it's Friday! I'm already sick of school after only 3 days back! Anyway, today I made two things. The first was Ethiopian-Inspired Red Lentil Soup from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen for dinner. It was delicious, and pretty simple to make.

For desert, I made Persimmon Sorbet from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon. To make it, chop up persimmons into chunks (the recipe calls for 4, but I only used 2). Place in the freezer until solid, which could take 3-4 hours. Then, process in a food processor with as little fresh orange juice as needed to blend. That's it. You have to use hachiya persimmons for this. They are large and acorn shaped. The other kind, Fuyu persimmons, are small and tomato shaped. They also have to be very ripe. They will be very soft all over when ripe, and will fall apart when you cut into them. This sorbet is so good and has a taste and texture similar to soft-serve ice cream (or at least how I remember it-it's been so long since I've eaten it!)