November 10th, already?

Oh man... Well, here's what's been going on as of late:

Oct 30th: Environmental Club Bake Sale! About 50-60% of the goodies were vegan and it all went super well. We managed to raise 225$! That's a record!

Oct 31st: Halloween! I dressed up as Edie Sedgwick, one of Andy Warhol's superstars of the 60s.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the full costume, but I did have some free time with iPhoto before my friends came over:

But yeah, Halloween was super fun :) I had 15 friends over and we just had a good time. It was unusually warm, too, so we went to a park and played tag! haha

I didn't go trick-or-treating.... But I think I'm going to try doing that on Christmas this year. Hehe.. Just imagine the looks on people's face! Oh boy.


And, well, school has been insanely busy. I had 9 things due today!
Anyways, see you all again soon :)

A MARVELOUS day in the life of Peggy the Veggie

Today was an absolutely AWESOME day. I don't even know how it all went so well, but it was fabulous.

In fact, I'll indulge you all in a play-by-play of some of what made today so great: (I won't go over everything, obviously. that would be too much.)

6:30 woke up (let myself sleep in a bit as a treat), had a shower
7:00 had waffles for breakfast!
8:15 didn't miss my bus to school
8:45 gave a copy of PETA's Vegetarian Starter Kit to my friend KB, who is going to try out vegetarianism (YAY!)
9:00 Math! yay! (I'm such a dork :P)
11:49 Lunch... I took the time last night to make a spiffy bento!

I used the tofu noodles again, this time tossing them in beet juice, paprika, and chili powder. They were then placed on top of a bed of spring greens and nori butterflies were sprinkled on top.


I also had some firepit corn (more on that in an upcoming post!), steamed garden carrots, and a sliced garden tomato.


Once again, I used slabs of bell pepper to keep my food from jumping around too much :)

I also didn't feel like doing my social studies homework, so I tied a little ribbon bow onto my chopsticks.

The verdict on this lunch? YUM YUM YUM. My friends loved how much effort I put into it, but I think it's way worth it.

1:26 I had a spare! It's awesome, I've got 6 other friends who all have a spare that block too so we went for a nice walk. The weather is sure cooling down (it's like 15 degrees Celsius) but it was warmer than it's been lately

4:00 When I got home, there was a little surprise waiting for me!


You see, about two weeks ago, my mom and sisters and I went to a pottery painting place where we had a lovely afternoon decorating and exploring our creative sides.


I had decided to do a little bowl with vegetables around the side. I'm happy with how it turned out! It's going to be the best little bowl from now on, for soups and stir-fries and oatmeal and cereal...


The house also smelled really nice, and this was from the lovely lentil soup on the stove. Yay! I love my mom's lentil soup :)



AND, the pumpkins in our garden are totally done now! We picked them and now I'm super-excited to do something with these bad boys. There were only two, but that's fine.

Today's Lunch & Some Randomness

Another salad for lunch; unfortunately my bento box is NOT airtight and the dressing leaked all over my bag on the way to school. Ack! There goes my precious flax oil! The salad was still excellent, though, and very colourful :)

I layered red bell pepper, steamed carrots, grilled eggplant, and fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley. Mmm!


Some veganism-related events that happened at school today:
(WARNING! This might sound awfully boring and tedious to you, my dear readers, but I can't help getting happy when people discuss anything to do with veganism with me)

-In Chem, my teacher told me that he ALMOST didn't buy a steak at Safeway because he was thinking of me. He still bought the meat, but I'm considering giving HIM some seitan steak and he won't even be thinking of cow steak at all!

-My friend W had some chicken feet on the bus today that he had received as a gift from a friend. Like, little chicken feet. Actually. They were in a little package and cooked and everything :(
So of course, my friend M has a look at the packet and opens it and starts eating it! He then hands some to K and W, who start eating it too. Ugh! So these three boys manage to stink up the bus ("eeww! what smells like cat food?!?") and it's just absolutely disgusting. Revolting!

I also found the reaction of some friends interesting. One in particular seemed super grossed out, and I jokingly said 'Well, you eat chicken all the time, so what difference does it make to you?' She then responded with, 'Yeah, but they're chicken FEET'

-Thennnnn my friend E told me that this whole fiasco made her want to be vegetarian, so I was like "Oh that's awesome!" and we had a little discussion. To be honest, it didn't sound like she was too serious about it, but who knows what might happen...

-A few minutes later, I was talking with some friends and they asked about 'my chili recipe' and if they could have copies. I had to explain that this wasn't really MY RECIPE, that it's Sarah's Delicious Chili from How it All Vegan, but I was glad to see that they were interested!

-Finally, just before getting off at my stop, my friend Z told me about some vegan makeup she had found at a recent trip to BC, and I asked her what brand and she said she's get back to me on that. Ok, so this conversation doesn't really have a point up here on the blog, but evidently my veganism is really 'rubbing off' and my friends are becoming more aware. Yay! I love them all no matter what, but when they're awesome I love them just that much more :)

First day of school

For breakfast, I had another Fat Free Vegan omelette- and it was ever better than yesterday's! I mixed in more spices and cooked it just a little bit longer. The result was absolutely delicious!


Here's part of what I packed for lunch: a lovely little rainbow salad!



I think I'm going to start going all-out and making crazy bento boxes with those intricate seaweed details and such. Fun fun fun :)

Dinner was a lovely, savory vegetable soup. I LOVE VEGETABLE SOUPS! Especially with brussel sprouts :) It's weird, I only like those little guys two ways- totally mushy in a soup, or roasted until crispy. Steamed or boiled is just 'meh'.

I actually stirred some homemade hummus into my soup bowl, too, for a boost of protein and creamy yumminess.
That's not all we had for dinner, though. The whole family meal was vegan, which was really quite cool and has been happening more and more often. I love it!

We had the soup, hummus, garlic bread, gnocchi, fried potatoes & carrots, and garden cucumbers. What a feast!

And how was school itself? It was fine... I'm in grade 11 now, so it was nice not being a little grade 10 anymore. My classes all seem okay too. I feel like such a nerd for saying this, but I'm actually so pumped for math this year. I'm doing 20/30 IB, so it's basically going to be EXTRA PACKED and won't leave me bored. :)

There's only one thing that annoys me about my schedule... I couldn't get put into Phys Ed! :( So I now have a half-year spare, which is okay, but I'd rather be in phys ed. Guess I'll just go for a walk in that time then! After being active all summer, being cooped up in the school drives me insane.

(actually, my school is right beside a Health Club / gym, so I'm thinking that some days during the winter I could totally go for a little workout there! hopefully it'll be okay that I'm under 18...)

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Lately, my #1 favorite snack has been the Curry Roasted Chickpeas from the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. These are SO GOOD and insanely addictive.(to the left is the garlic bread we had for dinner, minus the garlic and toastedness since it wasn't done yet!)

That's all for now! :)

A momentous occasion!

Last weekend, my friend J and I went to another friend's lake cabin. It was a lot of fun and a lovely relaxing weekend. Most exciting, though, was the fact that this friend's uncle was... vegan!!

You see, while I have 'met' my fair share of vegans through the internet, I've never met one in 'real life' before. Sad, isn't it? I suppose I could always go to one of the vegetarian picnics organized around here, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. Anyways, it was rather exciting to finally meet another vegan. Yayy!

I can't help but laugh at myself, though. I was all excited and nervous about talking to him, as if it were a big deal. We did end up having a little chat about veggie burgers and vegan cheese, which was kinda cool.



In other news... The rain is POURING DOWN right now and I'm getting frustrated because I want to go for a run & have a shower before I go to work, but it seems like this storm isn't going to pass over anytime soon. Guess I'll just have to brave the elements!

What's been happening lately...

Well...

On June 5th, the environmental club did a park clean-up, which was real fun. Even better was the fact that we had a potluck after- yum! I brought VLV Homestyle chocolate chip cookies, as always, as well as a yummy bean salad:

Peggy's Potluck Staple Corn & Black Bean Salad

You'll need:
(measurements are approximate- fool around with them as you'd like)

2 cans black beans
3 cups of frozen corn
1 chopped red pepper
1 tbsp flax or olive oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar OR lime juice
1-2 tsp cumin
Chopped parsely (optional)

Mix together in a big bowl or container... and enjoy! This tastes really good if you leave it in the refrigerator for a few hours ahead of time.

This was a real big hit, even among the enviromental club's dedicated carnivores!
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Also, my last day of classes was the 11th- yay! Right now, I'm in the middle of exams, with 5 down and 3 to go.

(Why so many, you ask? My school isn't semestered so we have all the finals at the end of the year. Plus, I'm taking 2 languages- French and Italian- and each of those has a Multiple choice/written component as well as an oral exam. Ack!)

The weather has been SO nice here lately- it's summer indeed! On Monday my friend J had a super-fun year-end party at her house, and I had a really great time. I did get a little bit sunburnt, but luckily that has faded into a tan. I need to wear more sunscreen!

Actually, I lied. The weather has indeed been great, but the weather YESTERDAY was insane. Around 4:30, it started to pour like crazy- I don't think I've ever seen it rain so hard in my life. The clouds were so dark that it actually seemed like it was nighttime. There was lightning and thunder and lots and lots of wind. In fact, one of the trees in our neighbour's backyard got blown over! Into our own backyard! And crushed a part of our fence!

Here's a cellphone picture I managed to take:

Yikes!

My dad managed to get down to business, though. Soon enough, the neighbours were all outside helping us clean up, and by 8:30 my dad even had new fenceboards up. Good as new!

Lastly... Cherry the Teenage Health Nut tagged me for a meme! :D I won't do it now (I should actually study :S), but I'm looking forward to filling it out later tonight or tomorrow! :)

Calling all San Francisco vegans!!

(Or really, anyone who's visited the place)

This summer, I'm going to be heading down to San Francisco for a couple days. I'm very excited, since I've never been to mainland United States, and California sounds absolutely awesome.

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone had recommendations restaurant-wise. I'd love to try some delicious vegan fare- I don't eat out often, but this holiday will be an exception. Also, I think I'd like to stop at a farmer's market or two to fulfill my fresh veggie needs, so anything on that front would be veryvery helpful as well.

Thanks in advance! :)

I'll be going with my mom probably sometime around early August, so expect to see lots of pictures of the trip up on Vegan Teen Cuisine!

Watch out California, here comes the Peggysaurus...

My cousin's wedding! & one last thing about the birthday

This past weekend, I went down to Okotoks for my cousin's wedding. It was quite lovely, despite the rain, but I'll only blog about the vegan-related aspects just to keep this short.

Anyways, this is the first wedding reception I've been to since going vegan, so I was a bit nervous about how this would go down. The dinner was at the Calgary Golf and Country Club, so naturally I assumed it would be a sit-down dinner.

Now, a month or so ago, my cousin contacted me on Facebook to ask me if I ate chicken or not. Of course, I said that I didn't and explained briefly what vegans choose not to eat. I was glad to see that he made this effort, to say the least, and I was excitedly anticipating exactly what I would end up eating.

Shall I put it simply?

The dinner was AMAZING. Not perfect, but pretty darn close!

First was a rich lentil soup. The only difference between my dish and everyone else's was that mine didn't have cream in it. And it was still amazing, of course! I'm definitely going to try pureeing my lentil soups, as it seems to add an air of sophistication, hehe.
(this picture doesn't do it much justice, unfortunately)


Next was a salad, and mine was just like everyone else's: grilled vegetables with lettuce and vinaigrette.
WOW that was good. I'm not a fan of artichokes or olives, so I left those, but the mushroom, zucchini, bell peppers, and tomato were fabulous! I just wish I got more!

And now for the main course...

What was on the other diners' plates? Some sort of chicken dish, vegetables, and scalloped potatoes. They all said it was very good, but I think what I had was WAY better!

Behold:
Potatoes, spinach, and mushrooms in a delicious tomato sauce, with steamed green beans and carrots on the side. Mmm! I don't like potatoes so I left those alone, but otherwise this was exquisite. I found myself trying to eat every last bit of tomatoey goodness and foraging for every piece of decadent mushroom. You don't always hear people describe mushrooms as decadent, but these were amazing! I was impressed with the steamed vegetables as well. They weren't overdone or underdone- they were JUST RIGHT.

And of course, dessert!

Strawberry sorbet and fresh berries- a PERFECT end to a great meal. What everyone else received was a chocolate mousse in a tall, fancy white chocolate 'glass', adorned with various types of chocolate shavings and fruity sauces. I didn't feel in the least bit jealous, as I only needed a light dessert anyways. In fact, I had my youngest sister eat the ice cream for me- I'm not used to food being that sweet!

All in all, I was extremely impressed with my 'special' vegan meal. I don't know quite what I was expecting, but what I ended up eating blew my mind! :D I am going to thank my cousin profusely for this!

Has anyone any wedding stories to tell- good or bad?


Now, I'm sure you're all growing sick of my raving about how awesome my friends are, but here's something else from my birthday party.

This was the card I received from my friend K:

(reads:
Grandma
You're loved so much)

Oh K, you are one silly guy.

And on the back, he wrote:

(No animals were harmed in the making of this card)

Hahahaaa, is that not awesome!?!?!

(as a side note, this K is the same guy who brought up the 'cinnamon challenge' back in November...)

Anyways, that's all folks, thanks for all the comments on previous blogs and I'm sorry for not replying to everyone. I'm still awful busy- final exams start in two weeks!!!- but as soon as things settle down, I'll try to get right back on track!

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!

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. :)

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!!!

Just a quick post

I made something today :D

Peanut Butter Cups! Just like Reese's!

Seriously, this is one of the simplest dessert recipes ever. It only has 4 ingredients, two of which you could probably leave out (the sugar and the salt), and none of the steps are too complicated. Granted, it does take a certain amount of skill to melt chocolate, and to paint the inside of muffin cups...

In any case, I can't vouch for how these taste just yet, as they are for a friend, but they turned out great as far as I can tell.

As well, I've been brainstorming other brilliant combinations based on this whole chocolate cup idea:

• Peanut butter & banana cups- add a thin layer of banana, or maybe puree it into the peanut butter itself
• Chocolate cups as ice cream bowls :D
• Chocolate cups with ice cream inside, and that layer on top as well... so the ice cream is like a surprise :o
  
• Chocolate cups as 'pie crusts' for individual Chocolate Espresso Truffle Pies
• Chocolate cups with a minty filling
• ..... a coffee filling
• ..... a coconut filling
• ..... a spicy chili filling, for an interesting twist

And on and on... Feel free to brainstorm with me by leaving a comment!


In any case, judging my all my posts lately, you'd think that all I do is bake treats and eat little else. Not true! I haven't had much time to cook, but I've been subsisting quite well on shredded cabbage + my favorite salad dressing du jour, steamed carrot, reheated seitan, oatmeal, and pita bread. Yum.

See you all around, and I hope to catch up with all your blogs!

Being a generous vegan is a happy thing

You've probably seen Isa Chandra Moskowitz's article on Vegan Culinary Activism. In case you haven't, go check it out! Among some of her suggestions are asking local cafes to carry vegan items, offering to write a food column for your local newspaper, or bringing vegan baked goods to a bake sale. My favorite from the list, though, is "Bring cookies to the office". Of course, I'm in high school so I'm not working in an office just yet, but I have been bringing yummy vegan treats to school!

Here's what I've baked up so far to hand out to friends & random people:

• Dreena's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Double Chocolate chip cookies (from a vegweb recipe that seems to have disappeared
  
• Brownies from Vive le Vegan
  
• Chocolate cupcakes from this wonderful cake recipe
  

I can vouch for all these recipes as they were all very well received. :)

I've only been doing this every two weeks, so every second Monday, and people love it. Plus, sometimes they're so shocked that something VEGAN could taste so good!

The next treat I'm whipping up will be fudge, as per my friends' requests, so that's be fun. I'm using a Vegan Lunchbox recipe that I haven't done before, so that's going to be exciting.

In any case, a bunch of my friends and I got together yesterday (Friday) and I, naturally, brought cookies. I made PPK gingerbread cookies and decorated them all halloweeny with my sisters. Fun fun fun!

It was a good cookie recipe, except that the dough was really fragile, if that makes sense, and that was both while trying to transfer the cookies onto the tray and while decorating the cooked ones. That was A-OK though, because missing heads and limbs make for excellent Halloween cookies!

Here are some quick pictures I took:

This one is the Flying Spaghetti Monster... just something that my friends and I like to have a good laugh about. Pastafarians, haha.



here, you can see my unicorn in the background, as well as a ghost up front. The black icing kinda leaked a bit. :(

A skeleton!

And, an adorable little Frankenstein.

The cookies received rave reviews. :D They were gone in a flash!



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cold, gray skies...

You know what's crazy? It snowed yesterday! When I was walking to the bus stop, I was even caught in a little snowstorm. Not fun! :(

On the other hand... It's almost November, and after November is December, which means that Christmas is just around the bend. Oh, I just love Christmas. :) To relate back to being a culinary activist, I think I'll give all my friends little 'gift baskets' of vegan goodies. Something tells me that they'd like that!

Anyways... thanks for reading and see you all soon! I'll try to catch up on all the food blogs if I can, I don't like to be all 'out of it'.

Blog Action Day was on Monday

From http://blogactionday.org/:

"On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future."

Isn't that a neat idea? Now, unfortunately I've had too much homework lately to post (ugh), so I couldn't really participate in this. However, I did do something environment-related on Monday!

My school has an environmental club, you see, so on Monday we did a fluorescent lightbulb campaign. Basically, we went door-to-door around a neighbourhood close to the school and handed out lightbulbs & talked about the benefits of fluorescent vs. incandescent. It was great fun! I was surprised at how many people already had "green" lightbulbs though, but that's a good thing.

Hopefully I'll be posting again soon, bye!

Seitan O'Greatness, Tikka Masala version

Before I talk seitan, I'd just like to quickly let VegMomma (and any others in Edmonton) know that I get my pita bread at IGA, the Italian Center, or Planet Organic. It comes from the Sunbake Pita Bakery, located itself at 10728 134 Avenue NW. There are other stores you can get it at too, so just look around a bit. :)

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Anyways....
I made seitan according to the Vivacious Vegan's version of the well-known Seitan O'Greatness.

Here's a nice shot of the dry ingredients:

Mixing in the wet ingredients & kneading was my favorite part- I should make some bread sometime, because I really love getting right in there!

After kneading:
Erm, doesn't look so appetizing, at least not yet...

I don't like the idea of putting food in aluminum anything (something about Alzheimer's, I think), so I used a layer of parchment paper under the foil.

I loved being able to set the timer for 90 minutes, then just doing WHATEVER I want during that time. It's not like cookies, or roasted veggies, when you need to take them out fairly soon or at just the right time so that they don't burn.

And, here's the finished product:
A cross-section:

I left some bigger chunks of garlic when I minced it, which ended up really neat. The pieces got very soft and moist and wonderfully garlicky.
I've cut the whole log into nice, tiny strips that I can now add to a stir-fry or whatever else.

Alongside some yummy sushi, I packed some little pieces of seitan in my lunch for today. It's such a yummy, compact source of protein!

That was definitely a great recipe, and I'll probably follow it again pretty soon, but make some variations. A lot less nutritional yeast, for one- the cheesy aftertaste isn't really my thing. I really liked the complex flavours though- some spices hit your tongue right away, others you can taste just as you're swallowing. Awesome!

I had a lot of homework last night to work on, but I couldn't help but take a picture of the lovely sunset outside my window:


And, I've got some exciting news to share! I had a blood test last Wednesday, and the results are in- my protein, iron, B12, etc. are all GREAT! Yay! I'm a healthy, happy vegan! :D