Farmer's Market and Steamed Vegetables

Every Tuesday for the past month and a half, the Pflugerville Farmer's Market has been open. I was so excited about this because now are going there almost every week; before, when we had to drive all the way to Austin for a farmer's market, it happened much less often, only a few times a year. They have lots of delicious produce- berries, Fredericksburg peaches(which are THE BEST PEACHES, no contest), squash, tomatoes, peppers, and more. They have delicious herbal teas, live music, and VEGAN BAKED GOODS from Happy Vegan Bakery. When I first saw this, I couldn't believe it. Fresh vegan baked goods in Pflugerville? You mean I don't have to go all the way to Dhaba Joy? Sweet! The baker is a really sweet young woman from South Africa. She offers cupcakes, brownies, oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, and recently, bread, all vegan. This past Tuesday, I bought a Banana Carmel Cupcake, which was fantastic.

Last night I made a recipe from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch called Steamed Vegetables and Tofu with Brown Rice. But instead of the sauce they suggest making for it, I just seasoned it with a tiny bit of Bragg's and left out the pine nuts, since I didn't have any. Also, I used a yellow squash from the farmer's market instead of the broccoli, since we also had broccoli on the side(which I ate before taking the picture). I really like this recipe because it was really simple and really healthy, and the Bragg's gave it just enough extra flavor, but not too much.


Today is the first day of summer. HA! It's been 100 degrees for the past month or longer here.

UIL, Squash, and "Burgers"

Yesterday I went to a UIL competition and competed in Calculator Applications and Mathematics. UIL stands for University Interscholastic League. It consists of various academic competitions, including speech, history, writing, and math. I did ok on the Calculator. I got a 103. In the calculator competition, you have to do very complex operations on the calculator. In the Mathematics, however, I did extremely well, the best I've ever done! I got a 180, and ranked 9th place. If I had answered just one more (correctly, of course), I would have gotten a 186 and ranked 6th or better, which would have gotten me an award! Oh well, I did well anyway. Maybe next time I'll get an award!

It is really cold here! Tomorrow it is very likely there will be ice or snow. We don't have school tomorrow anyway, but school might get canceled Tuesday if the weather turns out how they predict. We don't get this kind of weather very often, so when we do, even the tiniest bit of ice will get school canceled.

Tonight I cooked Red Bean-Chipotle Burgers. I didn't bother taking a picture because Susan already has a picture that is way better than my picture would be if I took one. These burgers stayed together very well! These are the first veggies burgers I have made that haven't fallen apart. We ate 4 and have 2 left over, which I'm going to try freezing for those days when I'm too swamped with school work to cook. To go along with the burgers, I made the squash you see above. This is adapted from Nuts and Bolts Squash from Dr. Fuhrman. I only had one acorn squash, so I only made half of it. Also, I used almonds instead of pecans, and added one nice, big, juicy Medjool date. I didn't use the orange juice either, and I the squash alone for 45 minutes (without water in the pan), then put the fruit/nut mixture in the squash and baked for 10 more minutes. It was really good, the dried fruit and nuts really seemed to compliment the sweet and creamy squash.

That's all for now. I hope I can post again tomorrow!