Cooking- what's that? (and a short lactivist rant)

Ok so today (yesterday??? I am on such a weird sleep schedule. On the plus side pumping is most productive in the wee hours of the morning. Remember vegans- cows' milk is for CALVES aka baby cows, human milk is for HUMAN BABIES. http://www.peta.org/living/parenting/kids-dairy.aspx That and formula sucks balls. Oh and if you want to kevetch that breastmilk is too hard to find you need to check out Eats on Feets- http://eatsonfeets.org/ or look up your local chapter on FB.) Anyways as I was saying- today, we ate more leftovers/snack foods. I used up the remainder of the black bean dip (beans mashed with avocado and salsa) and finished off my bag of baked corn chips. Then ate the remainder of the humus and pita for dinner. So fairly easy meal and hubby was happy because there was food to eat:) Tomorrow I might get up the nerve to roll some veggie sushi with the other avocados I got. We'll see... this milk cow needs her rest. I am free range AND on organic vegetarian fed:) Can you imagine how much I could sell my boobie juice for? Unfortunately unlike conventional dairies, I would never get a gov't subsidy:(

Grocery shopping!

Ok so my mean old husband (JK) finally dragged me out of the house today to go shopping. Awful- I know! A man who forces his wife to shop- I tell 'ya;) Anyway we were going to get going this morning BUT since some aspiring blogger stayed up too late on Facebook, that didn't happen. We finally got out this afternoon. Amazingly we got to Sprinkles in time to get out free cupcakes (follow them on Facebook for daily "whisper word" for a free cupcake). It was banana, which is not vegan but such a good "cheat". I mean if you're going to be "bad" do it for something really really good, like free gourmet all natural cupcakes:) Then to burn off said cupcakes, we walked down to Zoolikins, my favorite baby store. We still had to go get groceries so I didn't get to analyze their entire inventory like I would have liked. (Yes I am that crazy girl who literally knows her favorite shops better than the workers. Quiz me on Trader Joe's- I DARE YOU!)
 Next, we made the trek to the mythical Whole Foods on Raintree (cue ta-dah music...). Ironically it is one of the smaller stores in the Valley. See Phoenix tends to be very spread out so many places back East (like the Whole Foods in PA a friend recently told me about) that would be small are often big here since real estate is better (well not exactly but AZ is definitely a buyer's market right now lol). Anyways, it was tiny. So much for the build up. However I did find something I did not know even exsisted- ORGANIC PHYLLO DOUGH! I have no clue what I'll do with it or when I'll finally use it BUT HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THAT!?! It was only like $4 too! It looks vegan- no butter AND the directions say to roll it out with oil. Going to be fun:)
After that we sought out the local Trader Joe's (as the two are often and always should be near one another but not in that annoying Red Lobster/Olive Garden way...). That one was fairly typical. I don't know as I was distracted by nursing- I had my tit out almost the whole time- that baby was hungry! (BTW how that nursing incident in CA happened last year I have no idea- I have never had an issue breastfeeding at Trader Joe's or most anywhere for that matter- except RA sushi! Ugh- that's a long story but nursing moms are protected by state law so they couldn't do anything. Ironically that particular location was in the same complex as a Babies R Us...) Anyways we bought a lot as we try to make the most out of every outting and headed home. We had Ezekial bread brand pita with organic humus from TJ's. Then I also cracked open a jar of 365 salsa (Wholefoods' brand- organic medium), and ate it with baked organic chips, some leftover black beans and an avocado. So good! I could seriously live off that!

Still didn't go grocery shopping- BUT I cooked!!!

So yet again we didn't go grocery shopping. I almost got motivated to go but then this afternoon found out there was a shotting at that mall I went to on Monday (after PF Chang's). SO that kind of distracted us... BTW from what I hear no one was hurt thankfully but when there's a major crisis happening like 5 miles from your home, paying attention to the latest breaking news becomes a priority. Anyhow, still managed to eat and eat vegan. Of course eatting vegan at home is fairly easy as about the only non-vegan things I buy are the pets' food LOL. (And yes I've looked into vegetarian pet food- had my adopted greyhound on Nature's Recipe Vegetarian Formula but that didn't work out. DON'T ASK lol... cats are total carnivores so I haven't even gone there with my tabby.)
So today I ended up making a quasi-fried rice dish. My rice steamer was dirty, so I had to try to make rice the old fashioned way, which is not my forte. (Just ask my MIL- word of advice: do NOT try to get on your HS boyfriend's mother's good side by cooking AND then proceeding to ruin one of her pans by burning rice- yikes!) I boiled 1 cup organic brown rice in two cups water and cooked it until it was mostly dry (didn't want to risk burning it so the rice wasn't sticky nor fluffy). Then I sauted 1 chopped onion with a chopped carrot and 3 small chopped zuchinis. I added a small handful of frozen corn for color (would have also added frozen peas if I had any). When that was lightly browned, I put it aside and sauted a 14 oz package tofu (organic as were the veggies and the sunflower oil I cooked them in). I "scrambled" the tofu to be egg like. You can also add turmeric powder to make it look yellow like eggs but I didn't have any. I grated some fresh ginger (which is awesome b/c it keeps so long much like onions, carrots and zuchinni) and a clove of garlic into the tofu. I mixed in the rice and veggies, letting it stream off some liquid for a bit. Finally I served it with liberal amounts of soy sauce (organic of course as to avoid GMOs). Too bad I didn't make a larger batch- it was good and would have froze well:)

A litte late

Ok so babies are great, except when you are in one of those rare moods where you want to get something done. Something like, I don't know, cooking or blogging. I can type one hand and nurse or whatnot at the same time, but it's less than ideal and I'm more prone to errors.
So anyways, today we yet again did not go grocery shopping. I was debating getting something out but instead ate whatever random stuff I could throw together at home. I LOVE PB! It's a cheap protein source and mashed up with bananas- well it's simply divine! So I have been rolling in that stuff lately. Tastes like junk food but is rather healthy, though kind of higher in calories (more energy, right? for all that sitting on my bum I do...lol). So that and a PB&J on sprouted organic wheat bread with soy milk were my nourishment today. BTW I love organic all natural PB at Trader Joe's- only $2.99! I scrap the jar clean:) It comes in an unsalted version but after finally getting used to the unsweetened, natural PB the unsalted is a little much. I mean it's JUST ground peanuts...
Luckily I got slightly inspired before hubby got home from the swing shift. I made up frozen OJ. Then I heated up some frozen soup leftovers (French green lentils, browned onion and mushrooms, with corn, potatoes, carrots, zuchini and veggie broth) served with toasted bread and made a salad with the limp romaine and spinach in the fridge. Added some carrot and cucumber along with some almonds. We ate it with the last of Whole Foods brand Seasame Goddess dressing- only problem was it ran out:( SO good! Anyways, I'm not a total saint- begged hubby to bring home some dark chocolate, which often is vegan in that there is no dairy but unfortunately that's not the case with Hershey's Special Dark:( Don't ask how much I ate lol...

Third day- so much for cooking lol...

Ok so I was going to do all this stuff today- running errands all around town, mostly in Scottsdale where within blocks of each other is my favorite baby store Zoolikins (specializing in cloth diapers) and Sprinkles Cupcakes! Of course I'm bad and often have the non-vegan flavors (they offer a vegan red velvet but I like my chocolate super dark), BUT we didn't really get moving fast. We were going to go to happy hour at the P.F. Chang's China Bistro in Scottsdale then grocery shopping at the one and only Phoenix-metro area Whole Foods I have not been to yet in Scottsdale. I was GOING to make mushroom enchiladas but that didn't happen as I never did go grocery shopping and we have like nada at home. So being huge geeks we went to a different P.F. Chang's in Chandler, which is closer:) We love their vegetarian dishes. There are so many and they are super cheap compared to the meat entrees (like $8 vs. $15+). Then of course happy hour means cheap appetizers. We got edamame potstickers, veggie potstickers, vegetarian lettuce wraps (OMG so good), veggie spring rolls and ma po tofu (fried tofu stir fried with brocoli and covered with a sticky sweet sauce). Delicious! So as you can tell eating vegan is SO hard;)

Second dish

Okay so if you thought I was a lazy vegan yesterday, you're going to love today! The recipe- Hopping John Soup. Take leaftover hopping john (see previous post) boil with some veggie broth and ta-dah! You have soup, perfect for pairing with your favorite cornbread, rolls, or just plain old sandwich bread (I love Eziekial bread). Add salad if you want to be really healthy. Of course there are a lot of variations. For instance, I personally love substituting half Bragg's amino acids with half water in place of broth. You can add whatever veggies you have wilting in your cripser drawer too. One of my favorite cookbook author Leanne Ely has a great recipe to do just this- http://www.leanneely.com/2009/clean-out-the-crisper-vegetable-soup-2/ Simply add in the leftover rice and black-eyed peas for an even heartier meal:) Most soup recipes can be easily veganized by using oil in place of butter to saute veggies, veggie broth or even water in place of meat broth (as in the above link), using faux meat substitutes (not my favorite but if you really want the flavor to be similar it's a good option- seek out products that are more natural and organic particularly if soy as it is often a GMO unless organic), using plant-based milks in place of cream or dairy milk (coconut, soy, almond, etc.- they all have their pluses and minuses in substituing), et cetera.

Yes- a triumph over disorganization!

Ok well I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do this blog or not. I couldn't find the notebook with my ideas in it. Ironically I even have a backup notebook and I couldn't find that either! Of course they were both in the bottom of my cedar hopechest in my living room, which is currently hiding a whole hoard of paper clutter. Unfortunately it's not big enough and there are two boxes of more papers on top of the chest- lol so much for "hiding". Maybe I'll get up the guts to post a pic later...
Anyways just found the dang things (sidenote- yes dang sounds stupid but I'm trying to curb my swearing, at least in the purpose of making this blog as likable as possible- oops just admited I'm trying and am nervous about ppl liking my writing lol). So despite a late start (ideally was going to start on Jan. 1) I've got it off the ground:)
Today's (and yesterday's) vegan dish is pretty simple- Hopping John. What's that? Well it's essentially black-eyed peas (sans Fergie- sorry couldn't help myself) over rice. No recipe really- just lightly seasoned black-eyed peas and rice, preferably brown for added nutrition. Am I a lazy blogger for not including a recipe? Perhaps but if you are reading this, you obviously have internet access so just google "Hopping John recipe". Now who's the lazy one? JK:) Here's a good link that appears the tenth down on Google- http://www.dianaskitchen.com/page/beans/hopjohn.htm Unlike many "Hoppin' John" recipes (ugh- I hate improper spelling lol feel free to riducule my grammatical errors) there's no bacon, ham hock or butter. Therefore it's vegan:) BTW hopping john is said to be good luck because eatting humbly in the beginning of the year is said to begin future prosperity.