100th post!

Oh dear, I've been a horrible blogger, but I'll try to get right back into the groove of things!

I really can't believe that this is only the 100th post, actually- I've grown SO much since I first started. For one, I am much more confident now in my veganism and it's much easier for me to stick up for myself than it was before. And of course, my cooking & baking has really improved as well! Yay for personal growth!


On another note, last night I had a bunch of friends over for a belated birthday party. It was SO much fun! We've been having some amazing weather lately, so even though it was 7:00 and starting to cool down a bit, we had an insane water fight. All of us ended up drenched, but it was the most fun I'd had in a long time.


I made a lovely vanilla cake, based on the Vanilla Cupcake Recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking, with the Buttercream Icing recipe from the same book:
And of course, I had to make something deliciously and decadently chocolately, so I also baked up the Chocolate Cake recipe, also from the Joy of Vegan Baking. (that is one AWESOME cookbook, highly recommended!!)

The cake was already so rich, so I decided to just dress it up with strawberries. Nice and simple! No icing required here!

Have I mentioned how amazing my friends are? Haha, I know I have, but I'm going to have to say it again. They bought me the most thoughtful gifts! :)

Like, this cute little vegan pin:

And a record of my FAVOURITE ALBUM EVER! Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea!!! (now I just need a record player...)

And even, some awesome action figures...

Mr. Bacon and Monsieur Tofu!

"You're going down, soy boy!"

"Not this time, you greasy punk!"

Haha... so yes, my friends are AWESOME, soooo supportive, and just overall amazing. I can't believe how happy I am right now! :)


On another note, I did give my presentation for Social class on dairy farming. People did seem shocked about what really goes on, so I'm glad I got my message across. Unfortunately, nobody has approached me yet to talk to me about anything veganism-related, but if anyone is making changes in their own life it's not like I HAVE to know.

And that's it for now, see you all next post!

happy (belated) birthday to me!

I turned 16 last Sunday (the 13th)! Yayy! We had some family and family friends over :)

Of course, I HAD to make some delicious vegan cakes for the occasion, so despite my homework overload (grrr!), I managed to bake up a storm:

-One chocolate cake from a Vegweb recipe (I used 1/2 cup cocoa)
....with the Chocolate Buttercream Icing from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

-Two cakes made from The Joy of Vegan Baking's Vanilla Cupcake recipe
....one was decorated with VCTOTW Vanilla Buttercream icing, but with a bit of orange extract and sprinkled with lemon zest.
...and the other was left plain, but served with a berry sauce (frozen berry mix warmed up with a bit of maple syrup).

I only had the plain vanilla cake with the berry sauce, but it was SO good! Mmm. The other cakes received rave reviews, especially the chocolate one! People just couldn't believe it was vegan!

Donuts!

Oh man, I want to make vegan doughnuts sooooo bad... It's like they're the ''last frontier''!

from VeganYumYum

That is all for today :)

I'm a terrible, terrible person!

Aahhh! I haven't blogged in forever! :( It's awful, I just lose track of time and all of a sudden it's almost April. Yikes!

So, what HAVE I been up to?

• Taking over the world with vegan cupcakes!
  
  For Christmas, my dearest cousins gave me Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and I'm loving it! Yay for delicious vegan baking!Golden Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing, plus a bit of peppermint extract in the batter and crushed (vegan) candy canes on top!
  
  
  

Coconut Lime Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing!

• Speaking of delicious vegan baking...
  My school's environmental club had a bake sale, since we're raising money to adopt a panda. I brought in Fudgy Brownies (from Vive le Vegan!), Golden Vanilla Cupcakes (from VCTOtW, with sprinkles!!!), and Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies (from Vive le Vegan). To remind people to buy treats, I made a note on Facebook. The next day? People were ASKING SPECIFICALLY for the "vegan stuff"! Whoaaa!
  
  
  Needless to say, other people brought baked goods too, and we ended up making over 200$. It might have been over 250$, but I can't remember :S
  
  
• At the moment, in my Social Studies class, we are doing projects on global issues, and my topic is animal rights. Hehehe! My focus is going to be on dairy farming & veal farming. The project is both an essay and a powerpoint presentation, and even though it's going to be a lot of work, I'm excited to spread the vegan word! Right now, I'm watching Earthlings on Google Video, and DANG it's good. Scary stuff, but that's what goes on...
  
  
• Also school-related: We've been doing a nutrition unit in my PE class, and part of that is a huge nutrition project. Cue the groans from everyone else, but I was quite excited! I've officially decided to go into nutrition / naturopathy when I'm out of high school, so this project was just a way for me to dive deep into the world of nutrition, plus show my gym teacher just how fabulous a vegan diet can be!
  
  
• My friends are awesome! I don't know if I talked about this before, but since starting high school, I've found myself a whole new group of friends. They're incredibly supportive of me, which just makes all the difference. At parties, there are always vegetable & fruit trays, and one of my dearest friends has started to only bake vegan cakes for these occasions. He's so sweet!
  
  
• Spring break starts next friday, so hopefully I'll be able to do molto blogging during these next few weeks. I miss the vegan blogging world! Unfortunately, my cooking has been awfully uninspired lately, but I just need to rekindle the passion, that's all. Hopefully, this hectic high school life will get less busy...

Well, that's all for now, I'll hopefully write again later this week. :)

I'm back- and my camera is too!

Yep, after such a long time without posting, I'm glad to say that I AM back! Life has been insanely busy, that's all. In fact, I've got a bunch of homework that I should be getting a start on right now, but first...

My camera is fixed! Yay! Here are some old pictures from late October:


For dinner on Halloween, my mom was mighty clever and made a delicious dish with carrots, orange bell pepper, red lentils, and black beans.. get it? Orange and black? :D

A stir-fry... I can't remember exactly what was in it, but it was sure good!


Brownies!


Oatmeal raisin cookies!

More cookies!

Now, what have I been cooking lately? Well, I haven't had much time to make lovely meals for myself, but I've been doing a good deal of baking for friends & school projects. Here are some new things that I've made recently:

-Sunny Corn Muffins from the ppk- sooo good!
-Baseler Leckerli- a Swiss cookie I made for a French project. They turned out real well! Instead of honey, I used 1/2 cup corn syrup, 1/4 cup agave nectar, 3 tablespoons maple syrup, and one tablespoon blackstrap molasses. Mmm!

Never, ever, ever again...

Storytime!

So, I was at a friend's house today, with a bunch of other people, and these two guys start talking about some silly contest where you have to frink a gallon of milk within one hour. Ew! NOT VEGAN! Anyways, then my friend A talks about being dared once to eat a teaspoon of cinnamon and how he couldn't do it, and K adds that he threw up after trying it.

Of course, as I might have mentioned before, I LOVE cinnamon. It's my favorite spice! (or at least it was... keep reading!). So I say, "Hey! I could totally do that!"

Someone goes to fetch a teaspoon of cinnamon, I stick it in my mouth, and that's when the world ended. All the moisture in my mouth was sucked up, dry as a desert, and I could not breathe. I coughed some of the cinnamon into the sink and thrust my face under the tap in an effort to drink some of the water. At this point, I'm choking, my eyes are tearing up, the back of my throat is burning, and I feel absolutely sick. My friends are all laughing and laughing, naturally.

Now, my friend J sees all of my suffering, but she is not one to turn down a dare, so SHE insists on trying the cinnamon challenge. I warned her! Even so, J takes on the teaspoon of cinnamon and goes through all the agony that I did.

For the next two hours, we're downing glass after glass of water in an attempt to settle our stomachs, we're burping periodically, we've lost our voices, and we struggle to get rid of that terrible, lumpy, burn-y feeling at the back of our throats. Agh. All that from the cinnamon...

In any case, I got home about an hour ago from this party, and I still smell like cinnamon. I've totally lost my voice and I sound like an old bullfrog. Not only that, but when I sneeze, guess what comes out? ...cinnamon!

The moral of this story is NEVER EAT PLAIN CINNAMON.

And, for the record, cinnamon is no longer my favorite spice- I can't see myself using any of it for quite a while. :(


note: I totally had some lovely food pictures on my camera from more than a few weeks ago, but unfortunately it's still not working... someday soon!!!

Vegan MoFo Questionnaire

Liz from Food Snobbery is my Hobbery posted a lovely little survey the other day, so of course I just HAD to fill it out!

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
ONLY So Nice Unsweetened. Nothing else compares. :) Although, Almond Breeze is might fine too..

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Pita bread, Ratatouille, and Baba Ganoush

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Chili powder, but I'm not a big popcorn eater

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
Aha, once the cap to my jar of cumin seeds fell off, and cumin seeds poured into the frying pan, but it was too late because I'd accidently put them in after all the vegetables instead of before... It tasted pretty gross!

5. Favorite pickled item?
Pickled ginger :)

6. How do you organize your recipes?
...I don't. :S

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Compost, ideally, otherwise the trash.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?
Oatmeal, lentil soup, and eggplant

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
I'm only 15, so there are so many fond ones that I can still remember... When my siblings and I were little, my dad used to do this thing we called 'bread & honey'. We would sit on his lap, one at a time, and my dad would take a tiny piece of bread, spread on some butter, squeeze on some honey, and put it in our mouth... Totally not vegan!

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Hmm, I like making my own sorbets with just frozen raspberries and bananas, that's all. :)

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
My Magic Bullet, I suppose. What a handy dandy little blender.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
CINNAMON!!!!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Personally, my oldest cookbook would be this one called 'Easy Vegetarian'. A large part of it is very un-vegan friendly, but there are a few gems!

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
I don't like jam, but the smell of raspberry jam is absolutely wonderful.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Dreena's homestyle chocolate chip cookies! Or the Vive le Vegan Fudgy Brownies. :D

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Seitan

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Lunch

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Nothing...

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Flax seeds, leftover lentils, and gingerroot

20. What's on your grocery list?
Nutritional yeast! Planet organic was all out last time. :( We're running low on soymilk, too.

21. Favorite grocery store?
Either Planet Organic or Roots Organic Market, or that one health food store I loved in Kihei...

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet.
There are three: Rocky road brownies, pavlova, and my mom's Ski Cake

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Oh, that's a toughie!
-Where's the revolution?
-Yeah, that "Vegan" shit!
-Have cake, will travel

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Fruit is my candy!

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Oh, I don't know... Goji berries, perhaps?

26. Make up your own question to put here (and answer it).
If it were possible to live off of one food and still be perfectly healthy, what would you eat for the rest of your life?
Persimmons! What an amazingly delicious fruit! :)




Below is a blank list of the questions for you to copy and paste and answer on your blog. Post a comment so I know to read yours!

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

5. Favorite pickled item?

6. How do you organize your recipes?

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

12. Spice/herb you would die without?

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

20. What's on your grocery list?

21. Favorite grocery store?

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

26. Make up your own question to put here (and answer it).