[032] Christmas is coming

Christmas is Saturday. I'm excited! I'll be celebrating at my apartment, with Shawno. :D Later that day we'll join his Mom and family. I'm a little bummed I won't be seeing my own family this year, but it's understandable. Why?

BECAUSE I'M FLYING HOME ON JANUARY 22ND!!! It's official. I've scheduled my (free) round-trip flight for January 22 - February 5. Two weeks in Wichita Falls, Texas to visit the family. My sister's baby shower is January 29th, so I'm planning on helping her sort through the items she receives while also setting up the nursery.

In addition to this fun post about Christmas and family, I'd like to start listing what sort of New Years goals I'd like to achieve.

-eliminate soda from my diet
-possible career change (Working at my current place of employment is super, but I'd rather have a job outside of retail.)
-keep a weekly journal
-craft (scrapbook, paint, drawing, etc) on a regular basis

[031] Veggie Burger v-card

I HAD MY FIRST VEGGIE BURGER.

And it was delicious! Yes, it was a Boca burger.
This is the recipe I followed (sorta): http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Totally-Vegged-Out-Burgers/Detail.aspx
I didn't take a picture of my first burger because I didn't have tomatoes. I thought it looked rather lacking without the tomato. So I'm using the image from the recipe link.

Totally Vegged Out Burger

Ingredients

• 1 veggie burger (Any flavor. I chose the original Boca Burger.)
• 1/4 small zucchini
• 2 tablespoons cucumber (I diced mine.)
• 1 tablespoon low-fat plain yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh dill (I didn't use fresh dill)
• 1/4 teaspoon dillweed
• 1/8 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning salt
• 1 whole-wheat hamburger bun (I used white bread hamburger buns, simply because I don't like the taste of whole-wheat breads.)
• 1 slice tomato
• 2 teaspoons red onion (I pretty much minced my red onion so that it lays with the zucchini really nice.)

Directions

1. Cook veggie burger according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, use vegetable peeler to cut zucchini lengthwise into very thin strips. Set aside. In small bowl stir together cucumber, yogurt, dill and seasoning salt. Serve burger in bun with tomato, zucchini, yogurt mixture and red onion.

[030] Excuses, Excuses

Hello blog! Sorry I haven't been around much. Work keeps me busy with the Christmas season in full force. Not looking forward to Black Friday. It's going to be mayhem.

[029] Bat Sugar Cookies and Baked Bean Burritos

Guess who has been pretty busy with work lately? Me! Halloween had me busy baking sweet treats for my boyfriend and co-workers. I like to spoil the tummies around me. I baked up a batch of sugar cookies which I cut into the shape of bats. I also baked two batches of pumpkin cookies.

Tonights dinner:
Cubed Yukon gold potatoes seasoned with onion powder, paprika, sea salt, red pepper corns, and cooked in vegetable oil.
Sliced zuchinni grilled in olive oil and seasoned with sea salt.
A small serving of vegetarian baked beans.

I had been wanting some baked beans all day. I recently used left over veg baked beans in some burritos I made. Their sweet taste is far superior to refried beans.

[028] Lasagna in meatless form

Vegging for Health... more like, VEGGING FOR AWESOME.


Tonight's dinner: Vegetarian Lasagna (Chicken Lasagna for Shawno).

Vegetarian Lasagna

The vegetarian lasagna contains the following ingredients:
-eggplant
-zucchini
-tomatoes
-onions
-garlic and herb pasta sauce
-oven ready lasagna
-ricotta cheese
-mozzarella
-parmesan
-eggs
-basil

Originally I had wanted to place slices of eggplant and zucchini in layers. I changed my mind half way through prep work because I was cooking both lasagnas in the same pan.

Chicken Lasagna

The chicken lasagna contains the following ingredients:
-chicken
-onions
-garlic and herb pasta sauce
-oven ready lasagna
-ricotta cheese
-mozzarella
-parmesan
-eggs
-basil

Shawno cooked his chicken in a pan first then chopped them up really small. As he put it, "I know you asians like to chop things up really small when you cook things." Hahaha, I love him. While we were eating he said he forgot his lasagna had chicken in it. Although he could taste the flavor, he couldn't feel the chunks of chicken.

[027] Grocery Day is a very dangerous day

It's almost grocery day.

I haven't bought vegetables in a while. Nothing fresh anyway. (Potatoes excluded.) It seems like every time I buy them, I'll eat half of what I bought and the rest goes bad. That's usually the leafy greens. I try not to eat all the veggies rapid fire after buying them. I'd prefer they last longer than a few days worth of lunch and dinners. Maybe I'll have to start eating more leftovers than I prefer.

Oh well.

I want to make biscuits again. Bat shaped ones! I have this bat shaped cookie cutter that I still haven't gotten the chance to use. Bat as in animal/vampires. Not bat as in baseball.

[026] Veg Weakness

I'm on a baked potato kick. When I'm not at home to make them, I hunt down a Wendy's.

Just look at this deliciousness.

I didn't make this, but that's pretty much how baked potatoes should look before you devour and smash them. Mixing all the cheese, sour cream, and butter. Mmm. Steam veggies are optional, but always a delicious addition.

[025] Oatmeal and Flat Tires

Oatmeal with fruits will always be a favorite breakfast of mine. Yummm.

Let me tell you a little story about a tire issue I recently had.
-It all started about a month ago, around August 24th. I was on my way out to work when I noticed my tire was a little too low to be driven on. Just enough air not to bend the rim if I drive it up the street to the gas station. 75¢ for 3 minutes of air, sure I'll pay that I guess. Not too happy about it because I knew I wouldn't use it all. Topped off my tire, headed to work.
-August 30th, same tire, pretty dang flat. Drove to the same gas station again... only to find out the air pump had been removed. Sweet. So I pull into a parking spot that wasn't on an incline and also faced my tire away from the public. I did the only thing I could do. I put the donut on and put the flat in my trunk. Called up work to let them know I was going to be late due to a flat. (I really like that my co-workers are understanding and not complete jerks.) I headed out to Assonet where I knew a gas station was sure to have an air pump. 50¢ for 2 minutes of air, ugh fine. It was the perfect amount to fill both my flat tire and refill my donut. I was about an hour and a half late to work, wah wah wah.
-My tire held out for a while before it started going flat again. At first we thought, maybe I hit a bump too hard and broke the seal. Nope! Then we knew there was definately a hole. I could hear air leaking out but I didn't see where. I bought myself an air compressor (my sister and I can vouch for how amazing these things are and how much they come in handy). It was worth the $15.
-Sunday night I noticed my tire was completely flat. Like, rim sitting on the ground FLAT. So Monday afternoon I finally drove myself to walmart to buy plugs. I thought this air leak was on the outter edges of the tread. Turns out that was just a small tear. It wasn't until we took the tire off the car and did the soapy water test that we found what had been causing all this mayhem.

Say hello to Mr. Screwdriver Bit. (The quarter is for size comparison.) The hole this little guy made was so open I had a fun time trying to hold it over the hole so the air wouldn't come out while Shawno prepped the tire plug. FUN FUN! My tire has been plugged, hopefully it holds and doesn't cause anymore issues.

ON TO BETTER THINGS
Last nights dinner...
Chicken and fries for Shawno. For me; three slices of bread with peanut butter and honey on top, and sweet potato fries on the side. Delicious!!

I love food.
I have a tumblr!
http://cheesetarian.tumblr.com/

[024] Miscalculations, Owl Films, Owl Toys, Iced Coffee and Electronics

I'm a huge jerk at counting apparently. My blog told me I had 25 posts, but only 23 were live. Two empty drafts were saved and I didn't realize it. Woops! So my post numbers were off. No worries! I fixed them.

Welcome to post number 024.

Today's recap:

PeeBs and Jells for a light lunch.

Shawno ate a hot dog to hold him over til we went to the mall.

Burger King Kids Meal (strictly for the Legends of the Guardians toy!)
-Cheeseburger (Shawno ate it, my treat.)
-Fries for me
-Root beer (we shared it, awww)
-Eglantine toy for me!
Shawno had a slice of pizza.

Legends of the Guardians movie @ 1:40pm. (My treat!)

Shawno bought a new keyboard with his rebate from his phone.
(This means I am now using his Razer keyboard and mouse. My nerd level just jumped up a ton. I was previously using the Dell keyboard that came with my computer back in 2007 and a wireless Microsoft mouse that I bought only because it was green. UPGRADE)

Large iced coffees made by some Dunkin Donuts workers who are real gems.

Came home from the mall to set up keyboards and install drivers.
While installing the drivers for the Razer Mamba mouse I am now currently using, I had to do everything by keyboard. This brought a few chuckles. It reminded me of people who think their "computer isn't working" because their mouse isn't moving. Good times. I'm sure some of you are having a good laugh yourself.

Anyway. Date Night came in the mail today. Pretty excited. About to sit down to some cheese pizza and sweet potato fries with my Juice.

[023] Hallow's Eve

HALLOWEEN!!!

... is in 6 weeks and 4 days. :D

I have a corner dedicated to halloween in my apartment's dining area. I'm pretty much in love with it. :D

[022] Neglecting my Blog

Hello vfh blog. I haven't had anything worth blogging about lately. How sad for you.

I made cookies last night that have little chocolate mint candy crumbs in them. They turned out amazing. I'm interested in making more cookies but I'm not entirely sure of what to make.

Sunday morning I made french toast for breakfast. I even whipped up a small batch of cream cheese frosting. If I had one of those pie clamps (like what you use to make pies over a camp fire) I could have clamped two slices of french toast and filled it with the frosting. Yummm. Maybe I'll try some other method without clamps.

[021] Overeating delicious food

Vegetable pasta
Garlic and onion pasta sauce
Zucchini and carrots, pan fried

Delicious. I may have eaten too much of it. Oops!



This morning we watched disc one of the Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring - extended edition.
At dinner time we watched disc two. Extended edition is definitely the way to go.

[020] The title is the first three words in my post

Sweet potato fries...

you are very hard to say "no" to.

WHY MUST YOU BE SO DELICIOUS??!

"Have you ever tasted a rainbow? At Sabre... you will."

I'm currently watching season 6 of the Office.

Don't judge me.

[019] Ramen Noodles and Sauteed Veggies

This was tonight's (second) dinner. Ramen noodles (minus the flavor packet), carrots, onions, zucchini. :D

[018] Breakfast, Shows, and Gaming

Starting my morning off right.

Peach mango green tea, onion bagel with cream cheese, season 5 of The Office, world of warcraft (haha oh me).

On a side note; I work 3p to 9p tonight. I think I'll treat myself to a veggie delite for dinner. :]

[017] Sandwiches and Salads (with my boyfriends nose hovering over)

I just had a yummy sandwich for a snack.

White bread with the crust cut off.
Cucumber slices.
Cream cheese.
Provolone cheese.
I think tomatoes or hardboiled eggs would've been a nice touch.

Last week I made a salad using the following:
Romaine Lettuce
Mozzarella cheese
Cranberries
Cucumbers
Homemade balsamic vinagairette

Shawno approves of this salad.

[016] When produce goes bad

My asparagus went bad.
Some pieces of spinach went bad too. I pulled all the bad leaves out and froze the rest. -flexxx-

In the process of transferring recipe's from one notebook to another. My owl notebook (made from recycled bananas!!!) is going to be home to all my veg friendly recipe's. While my floral notebook will be home to all other recipe's.

Tofu fried rice: round 2. Turned out alright. I still had leftover eggplant from a week ago. I added spinach to the mix this time around. All it all, it was pretty delicious.

We're due for a trip to the grocery store. Grocery shopping is a love/hate thing.

[015] 12 hour shifts, Chili's, and Sleep

I've been at work half of this week. 10, 12, and 14 hour shifts (in that order). The good news is, the store is pretty much 97% stocked and ready for sales. Officially opening tomorrow morning. Tax free weekend. Super neat. I'll be at home, catching up on some zzz's.

Also, having dinner at Chili's with Shawnson, his Mum, and Elsa. I'm curious to see what sort of veg friendly things they have for me to devour. I almost always get chicken when I eat there. Mouth watering, thinking about it.

I think more tofu fried rice is in my future. Because it was definitely super delicious. I might even toss in some ramen noodles with that rice. Who knows. The possibilities are endless.

[014] Pancit made with Ramen Noodles

I made a pretty delicious dinner last night.

-Ramen noodles (put the chicken flavor packets aside)
-Carrots
-Asparagus
-Green onions
-White onions

Prepare the noodles, set aside. Sautee the white onions. Add carrots, asparagus, and green onions. Cook while occasionally stirring for about 5 minutes. Add noodles. Done :D

I also had some pan fried eggplant. I simply sliced a small sized eggplant, pan fried each slice in olive oil. Added seasonsings; soy sauce, garlic and onion powder, and pepper.

I didn't finish it (it was a lot of eggplant!). I'm planning on having that tonight with rice.

[013] Cucumber in my Sushi

I made sushi. Booooya! At first I only used cucumbers. That was last night's snack. Today I used cucumbers and cream cheese for lunch. They were both super delicious. Starting small on the fillings. Working my way up to the big stuff.

These are the cucumber rolls I made the first time. The seaweed sheets were half sheets. I worked with what I had.

[012] Tofu, Baked Goods, and Roasted Garlic

We bought tofu!

Picked up some of the basic ingredients for sushi as well. I've got a busy day of baking today. Spice cake, banana bread, and peanut butter cookies. Tonight for dinner I'm making roasted garlic for our italian bread. That's going to be served with some sort of pasta. I was thinking making jumbo shells and stuffing it with cheeses. All of it sounds yummy to me. :D

[011] Yukon Golds

Yesterday I had a yummy sandwich!

I took a yukon gold potato, sliced thick round cuts and browned each one on each side. I browned them in olive oil and added a few seasonings; basil, parsely, sea salt, and onion powder. I took one slice of potato bread, spread olive oil mayo on it, one slice of provolone cheese, two slices of the browned potatoes, another slice of provolone, another slice of bread with mayo, another slice of provolone (haha I like cheese), pickles, and another slice of bread with mayo to top it off. It was more than delicious. Could've used some bbq sauce or something.

I'm looking for recipe suggestions. Our grocery shopping trip will be within the next couple days, if not today.

[010] Day one, Day two, Day one

Yesterday was Day One of my vegetarianism. We were on our way home from a weekend wedding in Vermont. I had a fish sandwich from Burger King for lunch. Pescatarian lunch on day one, that's alright!

Today is not only Day Two, but also my first day of work. I'm leaving in a few minutes. We're building the store up this week. Hooray for mall pop-ups? Bleh.

Sipping my morning coffee. I wonder what I'll have for lunch this afternoon... hmmm.

[009] Rehired by Geoffrey

Guess who recently became employed? Me! Rehired through my last place of employment. I didn't even have to interview, which is great. My mind goes half-dumb when potential employers ask me questions.

Two more days until I make the switch to vegetarianism. I'm making steak tonight.

I'll be in Vermont this weekend for a wedding in Shawno's mother's side of the family. We're leaving from his Mom's at 7am. Good news is, I get to sleep if I need to. :D I'll be bringing two books, yarn and knitting needles, and my DS to keep me occupied if I can't sleep.

Should be a nice weekend. :]

[008] Yogurt Fruit Smoothies

I made yogurt fruit smoothies!

1 cup of yogurt (any flavor, but I used vanilla)
1 cup of fruit (fresh or frozen)
1 cup of juice (we keep peach orchard punch, berry punch, and cherry limeade on hand)
2 cups of ice

Blend, serve, drink.

I made them super ridiculously thick. Mine still had fruit chunks in it. I love sipping smoothies and getting a chunk of fruit sipped through the straw. Yummy!

You can top it with whipped cream if you'd like. I'm not a huge fan of the stuff. Maybe a little granola on top if you make it super thick and eat it with a spoon. It all sounds yummy to me.

[007] Sun burns and Tubing

I finally tried the raspberry chipotle bbq sauce I bought. It's so freaking delicious and the spice is so mild it doesn't bother me at all. I had it on my nachos last night. I'm planning on cooking some sweet potatoes for lunch, so I'll put a little on those.

Unrelated to food... Shawno and I went to his aunt's yesterday. Her house is right on the lake. So we swam for hours. Eventually, I got the balls to go tubing for the first time. Shawno went with me the first time around. Then his mom went with me on my second time around. My arms started to give out on the second run I fell off the first time when his aunt took a sharp turn. I got back on and we went almost completely around again but my arms completely gave out and I was about to let go when I hit a rough spot and went flying, I did a front flip in the water and nearly completely lost my bottoms. So, my skin is super burnt. The skin from the front of my thighs to my shins is sore. My whole upper body is sore. I had a blast.

6 days.

[006] Burritos

Sauteed up some yellow squash and zucchini squash to go with my burritos tonight.
-left over refried beans
-yellow squash
-zucchini squash
-sour cream
-monterey cheddar and colby jack shredded cheese
-leaves of romaine lettuce
(There was a little ground beef. I'm not entirely a fan of beef on my burritos. Some of the beef was already in the leftover refried beans.)

Delicious dinner.

[005] Sweet Baby Ray's and Kittens

Yesterday's grocery shopping went way more smooth than I thought it would.

We walked in and I went straight for the produce. Yukon gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini squash, carrots, and I picked up a bag of frozen okra. Pretty sure those veggies are going to end up in some sort of stir fry or just plain grilled.

I picked up a bottle of that Sweet Baby Ray's Raspberry Chipotle someone recommended. I'm not a fan of spice, but I'm willing to try things out. I'll be putting a little bit of that on my sweet potatoes.

In other news, one of the apartment cats had four kittens recently. I first saw them down by the tennis courts playing one late afternoon while Shawno and I were reloading our laundry card at the leasing center. Turns out, they live right outside our building. I named their mom, Ursula, because she gave me a mean look when she was feeding her kittens. Moely is the gray tiger stipped one. Carl Winslow is the all black kitten. There are two that are black and white, one has more white on his face. I think we named that one Danny Tanner, and the other one is Kevin.

Well, Moely, Danny, and Carl were hanging out outside my patio yesterday afternoon. Moely and Danny decided it would be a good idea to jump down into my patio and play around. (Our apartment is half underground.) Then they got stuck, haha. The walls were too high for them. I didn't have anything for them to climb to get out. So basically I scared the hell out of them so they could get themselves to jump out. And really, all I did was open the door slightly. They ended up coming back and layed under the bush outside the patio. And again after we came home from grocery shopping.

Shawno said two kittens were trying to climb the tree outside our spare bedroom, and one was tight-rope-walking the window sill outside the bedroom. Haha, cute kittens. I wish they would entertain me all day with their shananigans.

[004] Sleep and Grocery Lists

I cannot even begin to explain how great it felt to sleep in my own bed last night. The family reunion was a blast. Everyone liked Shawno. :]

Tonight we're staying in. I was going to see Eclipse, but it had to be rescheduled. Dear John should be sitting in my mail box right now. Pretty exciting! Tomorrow is grocery shopping day. We ate all the food that was going to expire over the weekend, and I used all the vegetables in my lumpia. Soooo, we have just about nothing in the fridge and cabinets. I haven't even tried to eat breakfast yet.

I've got to make a grocery list. I hope the walmart we shop at has a good selection out on Tuesday. Eggplant, zuchinni, and squash sounds yummy right now. Hmmm, I taste a stir fry of deliciousness in my future.

[003] Hitting the road with PB&J's

I'm hitting the road!

Shawno and I are making a twelve hour drive to Claytor Lake State Park in Dublin, VA. Here's the fun part; we're taking his car. Not fun enough? It's a Honda Civic. Still not fun? It's a standard. There's the fun! As my family and close friends know, I drive an automatic. (A Pontiac Grand AM to be exact.) But Shawnson has been taking me out to gain skill in the world of manual shifting.

What does this have to do with vegetarianism? Nothing really.

Since we are leaving within the hour of him getting home from work (6:00p-7:00p EST), I don't have time to make dinner. Peanut butter and jellies will suffice! And for all you non-vegs out there, I made ground beef lumpia with carrots and celery in them. Yummm!

Anyway. This is me letting you, the reader, know that I will not be at my computer until Sunday night. I'm going to try this whole posting by text message thing. (I didn't have the battery life to try to post. Boooo.)

Ms. Young, signing off. See yaaaaa!

[002] Grilling Veggies

Veggies should be grilled more often.

In preparation for VegTownUSA, I'm practicing my hand at making veggie dishes. Last night I made grilled sweet potatoes... on the stove. Same thing. Top that with some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and you've got yourself a delicious masterpiece of yummy. I've found it hard to go wrong when it comes to grilling vegetables. Mmm mmm mmm.

[001] Going Vegetarian

I am challenging myself to explore the world of vegetarianism. There are hundreds of meatless meals out there just waiting to be consumed by me. If not completely meatless, I'll accept a delicious fish dish. Pescatarian anyone?

You might be asking yourself, "If she wants to go meatless, why isn't she dropping fish off the menu?" Because I can't afford to buy supplements in pill form. Those fish oils are good for you. Did I mention I love sushi? Yum. Let me reassure you, I won't be dining on fish every night. That will ultimately cause me to lose my love for the taste of fish. Which brings me to my next point...

One reason I am taking on a vegetarian (or pescatarian) diet; so I can enjoy the taste of beef more so than I do now. Through out my junior high and high school years, I often preferred the taste of chicken to beef. It wasn't until I was working for a KFC - Taco Bell that my preference for chicken started to decrease. I cannot tell you how delicious a cheeseburger tasted after eating so much chicken.

The second reason I'm going veg? Health reasons. No, not because I think being a vegetarian will automatically make me some sort of health nut. I'm curious to see if a change in my diet will some how effect my eczema. I've seen some vegetarians use a mushrooms as the "meat" of their dish. Unfortunately, I can't do that. I came across an article while doing research on eczema and what foods, chemicals, and environments/weather cause breakouts.

The article stated high fungus, dairy, and sugar diets can cause an increase in eczema breakouts. I've had mushrooms cut from my diet for about a year now. I love a variety of dairy products. Sugars... I can cut down on those, easy. That means 1 freeze-pop every couple days, right? Shucksss.

This diet goes into full effect starting August 1st, 2010.

What am I looking for? RECIPE'S GALORE! I have a brand new notebook (with a cute owl on the cover) ready and waiting to be filled with veg-friendly recipe's. So please, start sending them my way!