6, 7, & 8? I lost count :/

I've felt kind of horrible the past few days, I'm thinking all the weather changing and junk has screwed up my sinuses. I don't think I'm ready to admit that being a veggie has completely screwed up my system. I'm taking a multivitamin, what more do you want from me?? But there has been much 'bleeeeeh' about, and a whole lot of coffee in order to get the homework done (I've also stopped using white sugar, and, well, really any sugar in general in my coffee).

Friday was interesting because it was the first time I had to eat out. Went to the 6 Flags thing, and the food selection there was overpriced and horrid, as expected. I wound up getting a cheese pizza. It was either that or fries, and goddamnit, I'm not paying $5 for a small order of fries when I get get some pizza for a little bit more. I resisted the pepperoni, even though I would have punched a baby to get some greasy meat-like substance on my pizza. I already know I should avoid the cheese, but, but, but it was so goood :( I would pretty much suck at being a vegan. I love cheese too much. Like, zomg, cheese is awesome. There were also chicken fingers that I was super tempted to buy... I don't really miss beef or pork all that much, but GD I love me some chicken.

But anyways. An all around good weekend. I roasted the eggplant and they were deliiiish, along with some zuccini. The pre-packaged indian food I could do without, though. Kind of bleh.

I'm finding that aside from the toast and carb fests, breakfast is somwehat bleak. I wound up eating lunch-ish food, even though what I really wanted was some pancakes and bacon and/or sausage. For variety, I think I might have to get some cereal. Victoria showed me this awesome little organic grocery store in Little 5 that has not only bulk grains, but totally vegan breakfast foods! I might have to go back and get some hemp waffles. I am a little scared, and intrigued.

Day 4 & 5

There was nothing really interesting that happened yesterday. Or today, really O.o I didn't feel hungry until around 2 again and ate maybe 1/2 of my lunch.

Today was the same, although I didn't get to eat my "lunch" until 4. I was running around all day, and kind of snacked a bit here and there. Ate some peanuts at the City, run run run run, had some dried apricots in the car, run run run. By 4 I really wasn't hungry at all, so I just had this gi-GANTOR nectarine that Tatiana gave me. My leftover curry is still in the fridge at work :(

I think I might have grossly overestimated how much I eat in a given day, or I'm just so stressed out (homework school work BLEH) that I'm not hungry. Last summer when I first started the work/school deal, there was one week that I was so stressed out that I kind of forgot to eat. I'd go a day and then right before bed I'd realize, "Oh, all I had all day was a cup of coffee..." Meh. I don't feel weak or anything, perchance I can chalk that up to taking vitamins daily, which I haven't done since I was in high school.

Hmmm, dinner tonight was some leftover veggie lasagna that I made a whiiiile ago. Just thawed and broiled the crap out of it. It was decent, nowhere near the deliciousness when it was fresh. It does have some cheese in it, but, MEH, I love cheese. I don't consider it cheating, it was such a small amount...

Still haven't made the mushroom sangwiches yet! No real need, seeing as how there's still an entire serving of curry left. And all that zuccini and eggplant and potatoes... Hopefully they won't go bad before I use them :/

Day 3

I reiterate: breakfast is awesome. Even though I know it's bad to go so long without eating, I wasn't hungry until around 2:00 when I finally got around to eating my lunch. I didn't even finish all of the curry I packed.

It's just day 3 but I still don't miss eating a lunch filled with animal protein. Still waiting for the ultimate challenge of eating out, though. That might be where the real diffaculty lies, because I always feel kind of cheated paying almost the same price for a meal made of all veggies than a meat-laden counterpart.

I think tomorrow I'm going to try making some roasted mushroom sandwhiches after a trip to Whole Paycheck to get some nice bread. And I need to make some hummus!

Also going to start taking multivitamins. It's really hard to try to make balanced meals, and I've felt myself getting really weak. The anemia is kind of flaring up a bit, so I'm going to do a little research to find out some other foods that have lots of iron in them.

Still wondering what to do with those wee eggplants...

Day 2

I'm starting to like this whole 'breakfast' thing, even though it means eating my toast while walking to campus. I'm sure I look pretty funny munching some toast and drinking coffee while speed walking through my complex...

Unfortunately even the best laid plans can go awry. I planned to buy a salad for lunch at the student center (~$3) and munch on the rest of the snacks I packed throughout the day. But I left my wallet at home! Fortunately I have a 3 hour break until my lab, so I had an opportunity to come back to the apartment and eat there/get some homework done.

But, strangely enough, I'm not all that hungry. I'll see how it goes for the next few hours until I have to leave.

P.S. My thumb looks really nasty. And it hurts. A lot.

In other news...

I got a pretty epic birthday gift from T-Dub:




Gaara guards the entrance to my closet, keeping it monster free.

You can't really see it, but all the layers/details/shadows/etc. are individually cut pieces of paper. It's like, zomg crazy detailed.

Danke <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Day 1

Nothing really spectacular or life-changing happened for breakfast. I had 3 graham crackers and coffee for breakfast before I decided to venture out from my hut and be productive. I was feeling really peckish around 2PM, so I figured it was time to make an early dinner and see how long it kept me satisfied for my all-night-get-asstons-of-homework-a-thon.

I decided it was time to make some sweet curry. Delve into the realm of the exotic, move on from basic chilis and easy shit. Use some actual spices.

I found a recipe online for some chicken curry with coconut milk. I just added some cubed tofu instead of chicken.







Here's kind of what I followed:

Sweet Curry

• 2 Cups hard tofu cubed to bite size

• 1 Cup chopped onion (about half a medium onion)

• 2 oz. olive oil

• 4 oz water

• 14 oz can coconut milk

• 6 Tblspns tomato paste (same as 3 ozs)**

• 2 teaspns curry powder

• 1/2 teaspn garlic powder

• 1 teaspn ground ginger**

• 2 teaspns garam masala

• 2 teaspns sugar**

• 1/4 teaspn salt

• almond slivers for garnish

• 4 small servings of rice, prepared and hot to serve under chicken curry

I also added:

• 3 small cubed purple potatoes (already semi-cooked)
• 1 sliced carrot (already semi-cooked)
  

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large, deep frying pan. Simmer onion until translucent.

2. Add curry, garlic, ginger, garam masala and stir while cooking one minute.

3. Add chicken and water, scrape pan while stirring to mix in spices, simmer just until meat is heated.

4. Remove canned coconut milk into a mixing bowl that's bigger than the can. Mix well. This makes it much easier to blend into the pan. Blend into the pan.

5. Add rest of the ingredients. Simmer about 15 minutes to cook and blend the spices, and reduce consistency to your taste. Thicken with tomato paste if needed.

6. Serve over rice, garnish with the almond slivers. Include warm pita or French bread to enjoy with the sauce.

Anything with ** means I left it out. In retrospect, if I added the tomato paste and ground ginger I think it would have been much better. I would have also sauteed the tofu a bit more to get it a little brown on the outside. It's still good, just needed a little something extra.

Out of this recipe I got approximately four large meals, including the rice. I can definitely see myself making this again, it was pretty simple and reaaaally inexpensive. Probably the most expensive ingredient I used were the purple potatoes, and they really didn't add anything to the flavor, just make it look pretty.

Mmmm it was pretty delicious. I'm looking foreward to having this for lunch the next few days.




But I did sustain some minor injuries while attempting to slice the carrots with my new grater:



After I grated off part of my thumb, I ran around the house cursing like a sailor and trying to stop from bleeding everywhere...

I need one of those mandolin thingines to slice my veggies...

The Grocery List

I went to the Buford Highway Farmer's market, and I haven't been there in a loooong ass time, so I probably way over spent. But I got everything on my list except for whole wheat bagels and some nice rolls for the mushroom sandwiches. Honestly, all of this crap will probably last me for 2+ weeks, averaging $30 a week isn't really that bad. It's actually about what I'd spend on my regular grocery shopping trips.

Week 1.

5 Plums
2 Red Bell Peppers
1 Bag of white potatoes
3 Purple potatoes (couldn't resist!)
2 Huge Zuccini
1 Package of carrots
1 Packages of 3 portabella mushroom caps
1 Package of tiny squee baby eggplant
2 Onions
2 Packages of Indian spices for curry
2 Bricks of tofu
1 Can of coconut milk
1 Package of rice noodles
1 Package of rice noodle wrappers
Dried apricots
Almonds
Thai peanut sauce
Soy Sauce
Regular pocky (couldn't... resist...)
2 Packages of Indian Palak Paneer
1 package of pre-made curry (for those lazy nights...)

Equipment:
1 Nice grater
Chopsticks (my nice ones broke!)


TOTAL: $56.46

I don't think it's that bad for a few weeks worth of groceries! I'm debating how long it'll take before I'm about to rip someone's head off for a burger.

In the meantime, here's my menu for the week:
- Sweet tofu curry
- Hummus
- Bagels for breakfast
- Roasted mushroom and red bell pepper sandwiches
- Nuts and dried fruit for snacks
- Pasta and sauce if I'm feeling lazy

Pre-Game

I'm challenging myself to be vegetarian for one month, from September 14th 2008 to October 14th 2008. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I just wanted to personally experiment with all the hype that vegetarians tout about their lifestyle. I'm not going full out vegan or anything, I honestly don't want to be that concerned with what type of broth was the base for my vegetable soup. I just want to prove that with some conscious effort I can avoid meat and still be reasonably happy and healthy.

My main goals are as followed:

1. Eat healthier, meatless options. Less prepared food/eating out. I'm hoping that by going vegetarian, since most prepared/overly processed meals have some form of meat in them, this will help me cut down.

2. Drink more water (at least 64 fl.oz. a day-- still need to get my Nalgene!)

3. Make a conscious effort to not be as lazy. With walking to school daily (at least a mile), this goals is slowly being achieved. After 3 weeks I can fit very good into some pants that were previously too tight.

4. Tighten up my food budget. Meat. Is. Expensive. I can get an entire brick of home made tofu for $0.99. The only thing that I believe will destroy my budget is buying a lot of fresh vegetables, which are also kind of expensive.

5. Eat smaller, more frequent meals. My hope is that it will boost my energy so I can not rely on the constant feed of coffee.

I'll try to post every day with what I ate, how energetic I feel, how much exercise I got, and how much I spent on food. I'll also try to share some adventures in my crazy cooking experiments and share some delicious recipes.

Until then,