being better

The air is clear and warm, the trees outside my window are tremendously, almost surrealistically green: it’s spring, and a testament to that is the transition from eating heavy foods to more nutritious, vitamin-filled ones. I’ve noticed different bloggers doing this, which is pretty cool, but for the most part I thought, “Meh, everything in moderation.” Right? I can stick to my carbolicious, refined-flour-and-sugar kick that I’ve been on lately, just so long as I don’t overdo it. Cuz high fructose corn syrup and white flour are low in fat, ya know?

Well I suck at moderation. I’ve been gorging on soooo much sugar lately (mostly in the form of granola and other processed crap) and consuming little to zero protein and iron. I haven’t been eating actual meals off a plate either, but just sampling a little bit of everything until I don’t want to eat anymore. This style of eating definitely results in more prepackaged nastiness rather than wholesome foods. So yesterday, after an excess of pumpkin-flaxseed-granola (mmmm) and frozen cinnamon rolls, I decided to take a bike ride. But about halfway down my street I started feeling really gross, like the food I had eaten was rising up in my throat. I pulled to the side of the road, leaned over the frame of my bike, and really thought I was going to spew. I didn’t, but I rode back home and laid in bed for a while and thought about things.

So it’s time for me to jump back on the healthy train. I was all about that kind of thing last summer, when I did a lot of raw foods stuff. However, I have come to believe that eating 100% raw foods relies too heavily on non-local foods from completely different continents and that it is classist, because you can’t stick to it unless you have a crapton of money to spend. I know I wanna eat better and be better, though. General guidelines:

• A lot less wheat/gluten- This is hard because I love baking, but I’ll try to quickly give the food away?
• Less sugar, no HFCS
• More healthy fats- I went through a phase, that I’ve seen other teens do, of total fat-phobia. I thought it was healthy and “slimming” to eat starchy, low-fat foods all the time and to try and completely exclude fat. That always left me hungry, though, and I thought since what I ate was low-fat it was cool to just eat more and more. Now I believe there is such a thing as “good fat” (I didn’t feel that way two years ago) like nuts, nut butters, and extra virgin olive oil, that satisfies you and nourishes you.
• Lots of rooibos tea- which I already love.
• More fresh vegetables (especially raw)
• More protein (beans, tofu, tempeh) and whole foods in general

When I woke up at noon today I made some creamy sesame rice: brown rice, 2 t. tahini, roasted garlic and onions (which came out of the oven smoky and sweet and so much better than I remembered), a few drops of toasted sesame oil, sea salt and freshly ground pepper. It turned out really really good (no pic though), and I think a big batch of it would be great for a potluck or as a side dish at a dinner with friends. Since I boiled the rice and roasted the veggies last night, it came together really quick. I also had an orange, and some tea sweetened with turbinado sugar (that I jacked from the cafeteria before leaving school). It was nice.

screw you, cake pan.

You can go jump off a cliff. I don’t care if you’re adorable and shaped like a heart, or were only 79 cents at the AmVets thrift store.

I meticulously oil all your little crevices (uh, sick) and lovingly dust you with cocoa powder, but you insist on crumbling and sticking and being a humongous jerk to me. I turn down the oven temperature by 25 degrees to accommodate your hot coppery-ness, yet you still burn the crap out of whatever I make.

I guess turning this cake upside-down and slathering it in icing makes it presentable enough for a potluck tonight, but this is unacceptable. Your selfish, crumble-inducing ways are giving people a bad impression of vegan cake, which is the last thing I want because it’s my favorite food. And also, you are forcing me to give in to the Wilton empire if I ever want to make successful heart-shaped cakes. Why are you doing this to me?

first vegan potluck

I knew the Vegetarian Student Alliance was going to a vegetarian/vegan potluck, so I bought all the tasty little ingredients for Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen’s Mexican Lasagna. I subbed corn for the black beans, because I was already using refried black beans. I left out the olives, too.

I had my first experience with the communal kitchen downstairs (not bad, nobody got all up in my business and everybody kept saying “It smells great around here!” Only one girl asked what I was making, though. I wanted to wave my arms and run around the lobby, shouting “Vegan vegan vegan vegan!!!”). Got it all cooked, got cute in my mod little grey dress and turquoise tights, and went to meet up with others from the VSA at the designated place.

But they never showed. There was a parked blue Volkswagen bug sitting around, but I didn’t assume that the people in it were going to the potluck (of course they were. What was I even thinking). Fifteen minutes pass; I decide to drive myself. Except that my car keys are in the dorm, so I walk up there with the casserole, then back down to my car. Then I get on the road. Okay, now I’m in business.

When I got there, I saw the two people that were in the blue bug. I knew they recognized me, but I gave them the cold shoulder cuz that’s how I do (and it’s not nice of me at all). I put the casserole, which by now was quasi-warm, near the other food and labelled it vegan. I eventually met the two blue-bug people (Sara and Patrick), and they’re really nice. They complemented my food, too. I feel bad for shafting them in the first place, and we’re all going to dinner together on Tuesday. There was this really enthusiastic 50-something hardcore vegan man who, when I told him that I had only been vegan for a week, was like, “Well, what eggs are, they’re [*whispers*] the chicken’s menstrual cycle.” I was like, “Yes. I know, sir.”

I meant to take pictures of the casserole once it was cut up and such, but I forgot all about it. Everybody apparently enjoyed it though, because all that was left over was scraps, and those disappeared in, like, the first 10 minutes after I got back to my dorm. Weirdly enough, someone accidentally dropped some raisins in the dish when they were serving themselves, and it was delicious. Salty spicy enchilada sauce and earthy raisins… oh yes. Despite my failure to keep the food hot, I liked it a lot, and I think I’ll take it to my dad’s family’s house for Thanksgiving. I gotta find a way to add more enchilada sauce in there, though. I want to take a hot bath in that stuff. I would taste so amazing.