a wee little update. (for the love of moleskine)

I just love those journals. It's my dream spot, my prayer spot, my day timer, my "what happened today," my list of to-do's, it's just a good place to write things.

So here's whats going on in my head, outside of cooking, knitting, wedding plans etc.

1. I feel like in the past couple of weeks (I'm catching this early) that productivity has sort of exceeded my spirituality which, is not in balance, so, I'm going to try to get back to that.

2. I really want to teach vegan cooking classes, and let people know how EVERYTHING we put in a meal could truly be beneficial for us. Where teaching a literal cooking class may be out of the question, hosting one on a YouTube channel (thanks Maria) may be a possibility. I'm doing research into recipes, finding out as much as I can about the ingredients (nutritionally) and considering having someone on the video with me making the food as well. It could be an interesting venture.

3. I love love love cooking, but I feel like my art has suffered. I need to make time every day! Why is it so hard for me to keep a schedule?

4. Alright this sort of overpowers no. 3, but these are some things I want to make time for each day:
-walking/running/working out
-time with God/bible
-art time
-social time
-cooking time and research on nutrition
-music

5. Yea, I don't know if I can get that all in in one day. Perhaps a week?

6. I imagine starting a YouTube channel would take up a lot of time editing, filming, etc. Perhaps Tal would like to help?

7. I found this website sporkonline.com that hosts online cooking classes, and their students pay money, monthly, or yearly, in order to take part...hmmm.

8. I want to have people over more often. I want games nights, and potlucks to be regular occurrences.

9. I want to get over my fear of buying alcohol. Every time I do, I feel like they think I'm trying to get away with something, and I'm not, and it's uncomfortable all the same. (not that I want to be drinking all the time, but I figure being able to buy alcohol without going into anxiety-mode is part of growing up).

10. If I can even attempt some of these things, I will be a happy woman.

Hopefully I'll have a video up soon and you can cook with me! I think that would be super fun!

Anyways, it's a gorgeous day, I'm going for a walk.

Peace.

Dreams.

I want to write a book.
I want to sell my art.
I want to know more about photography.
I want to learn to sew.
I want to record my music.

First in the morning.

This fall weather and the promise of a beautiful winter has made me so happy.

Sure there's days like today when I sleep in and then regret it for the loss of productivity, but then there's also days when just the cold autumn air makes everything okay.

Productivity can sometimes become a god.  If you serve it all day you feel good, and if you don't you feel like you could have done better. I don't think that's healthy, because there is only one God, and he's not productivity.

I do however want to learn to not be so lazy, to take better care of my things, and to be more accountable. These are preschool lessons, but I'm 20 and I still have to learn them.

(The other day someone asked me how old I was and it was the first time I literally forgot. Remember when you were little and you asked your grandma how old grandpa was and she'd say. "well let's see, he was born in '39 so..." that's what I felt like. I said, "23, no wait, 21, no sorry, I'm 20 and I can't believe I forgot that.")

I had a dream that I was part of this weird cult. It was super scary, because the main guy could kill you if you didn't obey, and what's creepiest about it is that when I finally did escape with a few of the other girls, we tried calling home from our cellphones, and the sound when they picked up was in the same bathroom as us... Meaning the creepy cult leader had programed our phones to only call his phone some how and he was somewhere in the same bathroom (with multiple stalls) as us. When I finally did get a hold of my parents, they didn't believe it was me and told me to leave them alone, because it had been so long and they thought I was dead. Bad dream.

There's some first in the morning thoughts for you. I hope to have a God-centered day that doesn't rely on productivity for fufillment (but at the same time, I still want to get things done).

Have a good day!
Peace.

A green tea affair.

As usual there's a few things on my mind that I want to talk about, the first of which being green tea and my disastrous relationship with it thus far.

Green tea is like the cool kid of teas. Well at least it used to be. Growing up I always loved black teas, Earl gray, orange pekoe, and English breakfast. Mix up a cup of half weak black tea, the other half creamo, and 2 large spoons of sugar, and I was happy (and hyper). When I first heard of green tea I thought, "wow now that's a sophisticated tea," but by this point I already had a horribly abusive relationship with coffee. There were some days in highschool when I would work out that I had had 1.5 - 2 liters of coffee before lunch! These cups were paired with copious amounts of creamo and sugar as well. Anyways, so green tea was cool, but what would
it taste like?

I thought I'd start my artistic tea phase with some herbal teas of the fruity variety. These types of tea (the raspberry, lemon, and peach zingers) are nowhere close on the cool scale as green tea, I do believe that even black teas are cooler than them, but I thought if I was going to ditch the creamo and sugar drinks for a more sophisticated cup that I should start with something that at least sounded appealing, "raspberry zinger anyone?"

Don't be fooled! Even when steeped for a full 4 minutes these herbal teas never taste as good as they smell. You can pretend to love them, but I'll never be fooled because they are disgusting and will never be loved.

So after a few months of faking a love for raspberry zinger, I thought, "yes now I am finally ready for the ever intellectual and intelligent green tea." I bought myself a "stash" green tea sampler. Even the names of the tea sounded grown up, "organic Japanese green tea, traditional ancient green tea, exotic blend green tea," etc. and the descriptions on the back of the tea bags were even better, "an exotic blend of 4 ancient green teas grown organically in the foot hills of (insert gorgeous place), a light tea with hints of dark rich nuts and fresh green leaves." Alright so it sounds grown up, but still I must try it before I can become an expert on the matter. I pick an original green tea from the sampler, it's described as light and nutty (similar to the rest). I steep it for the recommended time, let it cool down a bit, and go in for the first sip...

BLECH!

I described it out loud to my friends (I was 16 at this point) immediately after swallowing as, "it tastes like the water that you'd boil asparagus in!"

Needless to say I went back to my black tea, coffee, creamo and sugar. I left the green tea affair for several years, until recently where I've thought that maybe my pallate has matured and that I may like it now. I should mention that green tea has been out cooled by the ever exotic yerba matte which you drink out of a hollowed gourd from a silver diffuser straw, so even if I liked green tea, I still wouldn't be at the top of the sophistication charts, tea-wise.

So after many different types of green teas sampled, I have finally found a love. I thought that green tea would never be lovable, but I've found one. It may not be from a classy brand, or even blend but it's delicious, especially paired with a little bit of organic honey (from
happy bees and groovy beekeepers)! Are you ready?

Drum roll.

Lipton ginseng and lemon green tea paired with honey is actually delicious, and I am very happy that green tea and myself are finally in a happy, healthy, loving relationship.

Oh I know I said I was going to talk about more, but the tea affair took too long.

Enjoy some tea on this rainy November 1st!
Peace.

whats in my head.

I'm going to be Tal's wife.
Tal is going to be my immediate family.
I'm Tal's next of kin.
If Tal is homesick, I won't have to bring him soup, because he'll be home already.
Tal's going to be my husband.
Tal is going to be my kids dad.
I'm going to have my own little immediate family.
I'm going to grocery shop for our kitchen.
I get to do our laundry.
We're going to share a bank account.
I have to switch all my I.D to say Carmen Humphrey.
I get to decorate our place.
I'm going to have a husband.
Tal's going to have a wife.

food, the wedding, and other things that occupy my mind.

Every time I go to write a blog lately, I get about two sentences in, and then BOOM! I feel uninspired. I hope to complete this blog and finally post it! (I've reached the two sentence mark!)



Alright, so "the wedding" has been occupying my brain a lot lately... and although it seems forever away (279 days I believe...) I feel overwhelmed at what has to be done, and at the same time... feel like it's too far away to do anything... oh well. One thing I have decided is the colour scheme that I like. I was sort of wishy-washy on it... and I have it picked out.. FINALLY! We're all going shopping tomorrow (Jenny, Allie, Theresa, Cady, Katy, Charlotte, Mom, and Grandma) and now that I have a scheme of sorts, at least we can look for dresses along those colours, and it won't just wandering around blindly in shops... which is my fear.

I'm horrible at planning things. Absolutely horrible. If you know me very well, you know that I don't much like to take charge in these sorts of things, and don't like to make everyone do what I want to do. Getting married seems to have a lot of situations where I have to take charge of planning things, and get people to do what I want them to do... (bah). I love it all the same though, and I hope that it all goes well.

NOW.. that the wedding stuff is over with...
oh wait.
I want to mention that Katy's little baby Charlotte and my sister Theresa's babies Taylor, and Lexington are going to be the cutest gnome fairies around and I can't wait to see them with their wings and flowers, and balloons, and face paint. (at the wedding)

and my adorable mad-hatter ring-bearer.

Alright moving on.

A lot of people have been asking me recently why I'm vegan, and even though it seems like I'm always blogging about it, I thought I'd put it into a few simple statements that make sense to me. Also, veganism is not a religion of any sorts, and I don't believe that spiritually I'm "awakened" or any of that mumbo-jumbo, I just feel, healthier as a vegan.

Here's my reasons.

1. It's better for the planet. If less cows/pigs/chickens were produced we'd have way less pollution (raising them, feeding them, cleaning up after them, and transporting them). That's not saying, get rid of all the animals, but there's absolutely no need for the mass production of them, they're not products.

2. It's better for my body. North Americans put SO many chemicals into their bodies daily, not only through animal products, but through most packaged foods (hi-fructose corn syrup anyone?) and I feel a lot better about my diet when I watch more closely as to what goes in. At the end of the day, if I can list (or at least try to) all the ingredients in my food, I feel healthy, and better. Also, it's better for your immune system, your heart, your skin, your weight.. (the list goes on). For more information check out The Kind Diet , Food Rules , The China Study or many many others.

3. It really inspires me to get into the kitchen and create. I love cooking, and I love it even more as a vegan. I feel empowered, and excited at the prospect of a new recipe.

(for those of you that are still fuzzy on the vegan issue it's no meat, no fish, no dairy, no eggs ... and as much as that sounds like deprivation, I actually enjoy food more now!)

Alright, some recipes for you. I said I would post my dragon bowl recipe earlier on Facebook, but I got uninspired to write it... so here goes. It's long because there's a lot of components, but it's really mixy-matchy, so usually whatever you have in your kitchen will work. Oh! and if you find any alterations that are super tasty, post them so I can try new things!

alright.

DRAGON BOWL! (the recipe)
So dragon bowl is a really popular interchangeable vegan dish, and it usually compiles of three parts, brown rice (or other whole grains), tofu (or other vegan protein), steamed veggies, sprouts, and a fabulous dressing. The rice I've found is quite time consuming, so I like to make up a huge batch and keep it in my fridge, then to heat it up, I just put as much as I want in a bowl, put about a Tbsp of water in it, and put it in the microwave. The tofu takes about a day to marinade, and can continue marinating for up to two weeks, SO you can make a whole bunch and use it in other recipes, or just eat dragon bowl for two weeks straight (you may want to)! The veggies/sprouts/dressing are easy and can be prepared right before you eat! (well unless you're growing your own sprouts.. I have this really cool sprouting jar, and it usually takes me about 3 days to grow fabulously tasty sprouts! you can buy the jars and the sprouting seeds at the health food store!) If you want to know why I'm so enthused about sprouts click here.



part 1. TOFU skeptics listen up! This tofu recipe blew the socks off of me! I hated tofu, like gagged when I smelt it.. and then I tried this recipe, and I'll never go back. It's so good that even Tal loves it! (anything that is fiance approved is got to be yummy!) I found this recipe at Everydaydish.tv.

(this is what the tofu looks like)

you will need:
1 1/2 to 2 pounds of extra firm (or firm) tofu cut into strips (good for burgers, or a yummy side to mashed potatoes) or chunks (good for kebabs, dragon bowl, stirfrys ..etc)
1 and 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
2 teaspoons dried sage leaves, crumbled (or 2 T. fresh, chopped)
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary (or 1/2 T. fresh)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1/2 T. fresh, chopped)
1 small onion diced very fine.. basically minced

Cut up the tofu however you want it, or maybe do some strips, some chunks.. however you like.. Oh! but I should mention, it's good to blot some of the water out of it before you cut it up! Then mix together all of the other ingredients and put it into a large shallow dish that has a lid (I used a casserole dish) and put your tofu in. Make sure they're all covered, and stick it in the fridge (these can stay marinated for up to two weeks so you can just pull out whatever you need to cook).

When it comes time to cook the tofu you will need:
1 -2 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of whole wheat flour (or any type of flour)
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast

Mix together the flour and the nutritional yeast in a shallow dish. Dredge the marinated tofu in the flour mixture and fully coat it. While you're doing this, heat the oil in a large skillet. When the tofu is coated, place on the skillet with the oil, and cook on either side until it is golden brown and delicious!

Alright, so now that the tofu is marinating, you can make a big ol batch of brown rice. A good ratio for brown rice is 1 cup of rice for 1.5 cups of water. For a big batch I use:
3 cups of brown rice (long grain or short grain)
4.5 cups of water

Put the rice and the water in a big pot and place on the stove. Bring the rice and water to a boil, once it's boiling, cover and simmer for twenty minutes. Do not! I repeat do not OPEN THE LID OR LET OUT ANY OF THE STEAM! This will ruin your rice. Once the 2 minutes is up, keep the lid on, and fight off any temptation you might have to peak at it, and let it sit in the pot for another 20 - 30 minutes off heat. Then, finally after all the waiting, check out your perfectly cooked rice. If you have a gas stove like me, you may want to use a flame deflector while it's simmering for twenty minutes... you don't want the heat to burn the rice. Once the rice is cooked, put in large containers in the fridge for future use. Earlier I mentioned how to reheat the rice when you want to eat it!

So, you've prepared the tofu, you've grown your sprouts, and your rice is ready to go. Now all you have to do is cook the veggies (not too much.. it's better if they're still a little crunchy.. in fact I usually shred the carrots or beats and don't cook them at all) so here's a list of veggies that work in dragon bowl:

shredded carrot
shredded beats
sprouts
bok choy
kale
chard
broccoli
cauliflower
mushrooms
pea shoots
bell peppers
(or basically any other veggie that you can think of.. although tomato or potato I don't think would work.. neither eggplant of zucchini.. no night shades..)

and last but not least.. the most amazing dressing I have ever made! It's good on basically anything that could possibly ever need a dressing! It's from a book called "How it all Vegan" which is full of absolutely delightful recipes! This one's called "Sarah and Tanya's You must-make-this-dressing"!

You will need:
1 stalk of green onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp of maple syrup
4 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp of Dijon mustard
1 tsp of fresh chives
1 tsp of fresh dill
1 tsp of fresh parsley
1/c cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp of salt

Basically chop up the onion, mince the garlic, and throw them and everything else into a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth and delicious. It should make about 3/4 of a cup.

TIME TO ASSEMBLE!

Start with a big bowl of brown rice (that's been reheated), add your cooked (and not cooked veggies), then you're pan-fried tofu, your home grown sprouts, and top with the most amazing dressing you've ever tasted! Ta-da! Dragon Bowl!

Alright, I think that's all I'm going to post for now! Have a fantastic Sunday! (try dragon bowl (or some sort of variation of it!)

Peace.

A little something I picked up.

So, as most people could imagine, when you take ALL the animal products out of your diet you can swing one of two ways. The hardest but most beneficial way is to being super conscious and thoughtful about what you're eating and how it's helping your body and the environment, and the easier way is to start with good intentions, and then to eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches 3 meals a day! If I've learnt anything in all of this, it's that it pays to be prepared. When you eat animal products, you can always just cook up an egg, or have a slice of cheese for protein, but when you're vegan, and you need quick food... Well what are you gonna do?

All that being said, here's a few tips/tricks/ideas for really healthy vegan eating!

1. Whenever you make a super delicious meal, ALWAYS prepare 2-3 times as much as you need. If it can be frozen, freeze it and reheat it for a quick meal, or put it in individual portions in your fridge for later use.

2. Whenever you have to prepare any sort of whole grain or bean, prepare them in SUPER large batches that can be frozen or refrigerated.

3. Make soups and stews in large batches. Soup is my ultimate quick food, I love heating up something super delicious and healthy and being able to eat it within 3 minutes.

4. When you marinate tofu, only cook the tofu that you're going to eat, and leave the rest of the tofu in the fridge in the marinade, covered, for up to a week. Pull out more tofu whenever you want and quickly pan fry it.

5. Miso paste. Quickest, healthiest soup. It takes about 3 minutes to make from scratch and is as satisfying and comforting as your memories of chicken noodle soup growing up.

6. Make batches of granola that you can store in big cannisters. I could eat granola every morning with a little splash of almond milk.

7. Make dressings (salad dressings, dragon bowl dressings, sauces) and dips (hummus!) in batches that you can store in your fridge. Store bought dips and dressings don't taste as good as homemade, and they're definitely not as good for you!

8. Cook leafy greens into whatever you can. It's a quick way of getting essential nutrients and loads of calcium!

9. Try new recipes and re make ones that were a hit in large quantities.

10. Start your day out with something very quick and delicious like a bowl of miso soup, a fruit, or a bowl of granola. Then your eating mindset for the rest of the day will be healthy.

If you're a vegan whose trying to be as healthy as possible, go for it! Don't let people get you down! I always remind myself thar if there's sceptism towards whether you're getting all the vitamins and nutrients you need, most people eating carnivorous diets don't pay attention to their food groups all that much and are probably missing loads of things too! So if you slack off and don't eat well for a couple days, don't cry over it! It's not like eating unhealthy as a vegan is any worse than eating unhealthy when you're not vegan!

So hopefully some of these tricks sparked some inspiration to get into the kitchen and make some large batches of healthy nutritious food! I just love that God made all this delightful food for us to eat that is so full of everything we need to physically live!

Peace.

hot pot party. favourite soup potluck, and other festive food activities.

HOT POT PARTY!
I was reading a back issue of "veg news," (a vegan magazine PACKED with recipes), and I came across this super cool idea of having a HOT POT PARTY! It's sort of based around the fondue idea, except WAY healthier! It's basically a super yummy veggie soup broth that you have in a little pot on a burner in the middle of the table, a bunch of fancy sauces, raw veggies, and Korean hot pot party pancakes! Basically you cook the veggies in the veggie broth and dip it in hot sauces, and the hot pot party pancakes, are sort of like Jewish latkes, but instead of just potato, you cook with cabbage and bok choy as well! I really hope to have a HOT POT PARTY before the end of the year!



FAVOURITE SOUP POTLUCK!
I'm pretty sure everyone has a favourite soup. Mine kind of varies, I LOVE BLACK BEAN SOUP, but I also love Kobacha squash soup, and butternut squash soup, and ALL SORTS OF OTHER SOUPS! (miso soup!) Anyways, the idea would be, I would provide a variety of breads and buns (what is soup without tasty bread and buns?) and a soup that was my favourite, and everyone else would bring their favourite soup! Then we could all have a ladle or two of everyones soup, and get a taste for everyones favourites!



Vegan Dinner.
I want to have a vegan dinner that is super extra tasty and delicious that will knock the socks off of any skeptical carnivore out there. The cool thing about it would be that everyone would cook together.. like get together a couple hours before dinner, and actually cook the yummy things that you'd be devouring.. I think it would be super fun to get together and cook with people, and have delicious, healthy food.

I think all of these dinner parties could be followed by a delicious vegan dessert, coconut icecream, tea, and a movie. Perhaps Christmas movies!



Anyways, I'm excited about planning these!
Eat yummy food tonight!
Peace

P.S Tal and I are in love with the indian restaurant by superstore (12 vegan samosas for 5.95!!!!) and now they've opened up their floor for dine in! WOOHOO another option for going out! (Mission's small... :( and when another vegan friendly restaurant opens.. I get excited!)