Galle & Jessen Mørk Pålægschokolade

My sister came to visit yesterday (she lives aaaaallllllll the way over in Denmark) and brought me vegan chocolate! Not just any vegan chocolate, but wafer thin chocolate intended to be placed on warm bread so it melts, and then you eat it. And that was my breakfast this morning. Soooo good! It’s also quite excellent eaten by itself. It’s by Galle & Jessen, comes in blue and yellow packaging, and has a bunch of Danish words all over it. Aaaand you can become friends with it on Facebook. I’m all for strengthening my friendship with chocolate.

Zebra Stainless Steel Food Carriers

And THEN when I came home today, I had more presents waiting for me! Grand Trunk, an eco-friendly camping supply company sent me three complimentary stainless steel Zebra Tiffin Boxes, including a lunch box, food carrier, and loop handle pot, and an Eco Travel Bag! This stuff is high quality camping gear, folks. Heck, I’m gonna use this stuff even when I’m not camping!

Look at all the fruits and veggies you can put in there! I am one happy camper right now.

This is great news!! Major strides in banishing this horrid blood sport.

According to Yahoo News: “BARCELONA, Spain – Lawmakers in Catalonia outlawed bullfighting Wednesday, making it Spain’s first major region to ban the deadly, centuries-old ballet between matador and beast after heated debate that pitted animal rights against a pillar of traditional culture.

Cheers broke out in the local 135-seat legislature after the speaker announced the ban had passed 68-to-55 with nine abstentions. The ban will take effect in 2012 in the northeastern coastal region whose capital is Barcelona.” read full article here

Hooray for famous people having vegan fare at their weddings! Chelsea Clinton, a longtime vegan, will be having vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free dishes at her wedding, according to Life & Style magazine. And, by the way, I haven’t seen a pic of her in a long time, and I must say, she’s looking lovely!

Why do I like famous vegans? Because they’re a wildfire of media promotion. So much of the world looks up to celebrities. The more vegan celebrities, the more popular veganism will become.

And, at the very least, more people will actually know what the word “vegan” means. Which saves us a lot of explaining, and others a lot of confused looks. It’s the little things.

Here’s the post on The PETA Files blog:http://blog.peta.org/archives/2010/07/chelsea_clinton.php?c=pfs

THE SURVEY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!

This is such an abuse of veg power, but bear with me. I need your help. I’m in a research methods class this semester and we are in the process of collecting data for our study on interethnic dating. It’s a 10 question survey that will take around 2 minutes to complete. If you are between the ages of 18 and 29, I would greatly appreciate it if you would fill it out. Here’s the disclaimer:

You are being asked to participate in a study as part of a class project in a research methods course in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. This is a survey about interethnic dating. If you choose to participate, no identifying information will be collected that will be traced back to you. If you choose not to participate, you may stop participating or withdraw at any time.

To take the survey, click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K8VBKT5

I only have a few days to collect data, so the sooner the better. THANK YOU!!!! Thank you with all my heart.

I swear, my next post will be so vegan… you’ll… you’ll have a vegetable garden growing out of your eye sockets!!

Sometimes I like to pretend I’m a world-class chef who needs no recipe to guide my kitchen craft. This is usually after watching Food Network and seeing how easy they make it all look. Most of the time, I fail miserably. But this time, it was a success! So I must share my ingeniously simple craft with the world.

Ingredients

• 1 cup frozen rice
• 1 bag of frozen veggies (corn, green beans, peas, and carrots)
• 1/4 cup chopped onions
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• a splash or two of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• sea salt (to taste)

Throw olive oil into wok (or frying pan). Place on medium-high heat. When hot, add chopped onions and garlic. Cook and stir for about five minutes. Turn down heat a bit. Add frozen rice and veggies. Cook and stir some more. Add soy sauce and marinara. Sprinkle on sea salt. I used extra coarse sea salt which added a nice crunchy flavor burst. When veggies and rice are fully cooked through, you’re done. Serve and inhale.

Very simple and easy to make. And bursting with flavor!

Kashi has a cereal on the market called Strawberry Fields. And I love it. No, not just because The Beatles are the best band ever. It also tastes amazing. It may be the best cereal I’ve ever chomped on. And I do mean chomped. It’s very crunchy. The calorie content’s not too bad either, at 120cal per cup. That’s way better than granola, which, though healthy, still manages to pack in a million calories per teaspoonful.

So what’s in this magical fruit and flake fest?
Organic long grain rice, organic evaporated cane juice, whole wheat, organic freeze-dried strawberries, sea salt, organic brown rice syrup, and organic freeze-dried raspberries.

Delicious both with and without milk. Fantastic with vanilla soymilk.

Based on internet ratings, which came from you, MY READERS, my blog has received the 2010 Top 45 Vegetarian Blogs Award! My blog is included, right there along with some of my favorite veggie blogs. To even be mentioned in the same place as Vegan Yum Yum is astounding to me. What an honor! Guess I better start living up to my name!

Online Nursing Programs

This morning I woke up feeling stressed out, short tempered, and negative. I woke up at 6am on a Saturday and was wide awake. So, I watched a couple of online lectures and did work for a class I’ve grown to passively detest. That did not improve my mood. I had no desire whatsoever to run, but thought it might make me feel better. It helped a little, but I was still just feeling drained all day. You know those days when everything just feels like too much effort? “Ugh, why do I have to clip my nails? Why do I have to use deodorant? Why do I have to prep myself every day? Why can’t our apartment clean itself? Gaaahhh.”

It dawned on me that I hadn’t had a good meal in a while. The hubs and I don’t treat ourselves by going out to restaurants very often. So, tonight I thought, why not? We ended up at a newer restaurant in the North East end of Minneapolis called Ginger Hop, which we’ve gone to a couple times. The wait staff is great, the restaurant has a a nice modern Asian vibe, and they have a wonderful selection of East Asian cuisine. The best part: they have several vegan options (even marked with a little “v” on the menu). I was craving Pad Thai. Like, GOOD Pad Thai, unlike the stuff we attempted to make for Valentine’s Day that looked great, but tasted like nothing! Seriously, no matter how much flavor we added, it tasted like noodle air.

So I ordered the Pad Thai with tofu (sans egg) and it was sooo good! Oh, it just really hit the spot. And I have leftovers now, which is, of course, another bonus. Sometimes I think it’s easy to take for granted the importance of a good meal in morale boosting. It gave me a second wind and now I’m ready to conquer the world! Or at least have a very relaxing, stress-free evening with my favorite person.

Side note: if you haven’t seen the movie Inception yet, you really should. It’s absolutely fantastic. Though, upon seeing it, I can’t decide if Chrisopher Nolan is a genius, or bordering on schizophrenic. Or both. But yes, go see it!! View the trailer here.

Ginger Hop
612-746-0307
201 East Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Ahhh… what a perfect start to a Saturday.
Morning jog with the hubs, before getting too stiflingly hot out (we made that mistake last weekend), followed by a nice hot shower, and a vegan parfait.

Ingredients:

• blueberry soy yogurt
• strawberries, diced
• Bear Naked All Natural Granola, Fruit and Nut
• a few pistachios
• nectarine, diced

Layer and enjoy!

Next on the agenda: a fresh cup of coffee and some fiendish studying. But, perhaps less fiendish now that I’ve started the day off parfait!

Vegan Brandy Peach Parfait.  Photo by QuintanaRoo

Well you guys were totally awesome about telling me about your extraordinary packed lunches! Thanks for all the great ideas. I know, I know. I’M the one with the vegan blog. I should be the master of brilliant food ideas. But every “master” needs creative stimulation in order to thrive. And right now, I feel my creative well is running a bit dry. I’ll blame the busy schedule since it’s such an easy cop-out.

Speaking of busy, I’m in need of new, quick, wholesome, breakfast ideas. Something I can throw together every morning in very little time, that is both delicious and healthy. Something other than oatmeal, cereal, or a bagel. And something substantial enough get me through the morning. One idea I had was to just stock up on tofu and make tofu scrambles. But that can be time-consuming and it requires a decent amount of oil. My tummy doesn’t like too much oil. Especially in the morning. Does anyone know of a non-oily method of making a tofu scramble? These are days when I miss being vegetarian and having Egg Beaters with salsa every morning. So easy, proteiny, and low in calories. I wish there was a vegan version of Egg Beaters. Maybe I’ll invent them…

Another idea I had was to buy those big cartons of soy yogurt and make parfaits with granola and fruit. Or, if I can find vegan sausage links (the ones I’ve looked at all seem to have egg whites), I like to make pigs in a blanket. Take a sausage link and roll it up into a piece of lightly buttered toast (using vegetable butter, of course).

What do you guys think? Let’s get those creative juices flowing and inspire each other! Again!