New Year, New Adventures

Happy 2012! The New Year has started out so wonderfully for me. Well, wait. It initially started out slightly rocky, but turned pretty amazing within a few days. Let me explain:

The movers came and took all of my DC apartment contents on Dec 13th and brought them up to Boston to put in storage. Then I departed on Dec 14th for Minnesota (with a stopover in Indianapolis to catch up with some college friends). I spent two great weeks in Minnesota, enjoying time with friends and family - and Jakers enjoyed Mom's 20 acres to roam on and chase squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and deer.

Christmas Eve with the family!

Then, the morning after my 30th birthday, I hit the road for Boston. We (Jakers, Mabel and I) made it 12 hours on the first day, stopped for the night in Cleveland, then finished the last 10 hours on New Year's Eve. So I get into Boston around 7:00pm on the biggest party night of the year, exhausted and desperate to get out of the car. The only problem: the security guard who was supposed to have my keys to my corporate apartment knew nothing about me. :( There were some mix-ups and there were no keys available for me. NOT OKAY. Luckily, someone from the apartment rental office was able to get downtown and by 9:00 we were settled.

Great, right? Wrong. This old building has old windows. I can hear EVERYTHING happening outside. Oh, and I'm surrounded by bars/pubs. So NYE was the loudest night of my life. All I wanted was sleep, all I got was drunk people, screaming, police sirens, and fireworks.

But I don't mean to dwell -- I've really enjoyed my first week in Beantown, once we got through night 1.
I've discovered Christoper Columbus Waterfront Park a few blocks away. We've taken lots of walks there, along the Boston Harbor.
My first week at the new job has been great. I'm working with some very talented folks and cool clients.
Through my apartment hunting, I was able to see some different neighborhoods -- and find a great place in the Charlestown neighborhood! I'm moving in next weekend!
And I'm looking forward to hanging out with some friends (new and old!) and enjoying some of the restaurants that I've heard a lot about.

Now, let's get onto some FOOD. :) Living in this temporary apartment for a few weeks means I'm limited with my groceries. I've been trying to find easy things to make that only require a few ingredients. This recipe fit the bill, and I knew it would keep well, so I could eat leftovers throughout the week. Perf. My mom used to make this Spaghetti Casserole when I was little, and now that I know how easy it is and how great the vegan version is, I'll be adding it into my rotation as a grown-up. :)

Here's to a great start to 2012 -- new city, new job, new apartment, and hopefully some new adventures!

Spaghetti Casserole(The pix do not do this justice - it looks like a blob o' pasta & cheese - but it tastes oh-so good!)

• 1 box spaghetti noodles
• 1 pkg Daiya vegan mozzarella "cheese"
• 1 pkg vegan pepperoni slices (I used Smart Deli)
• 1 jar of marinara sauce

Cook the spaghetti, then layer half of the noodles in pan, half of the cheese, half of the pepperoni slices and half of the marinara. Repeat. Bake in preheated oven (375-degrees) for 20-30 mins, until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then slice and serve.
Enjoy!

(This can be scaled to whatever size pan you want to use - Mom always made it in a 9x13, but since I'm only feeding 1, I used a square 9x9 pan. The ingredients are all eyeballed, anyhow, so just use more of everything if you want to use a larger pan.)

Tofurky and Sloppy Joes

I thought I'd take a break from Boston apartment hunting to do a lil' blogging.

First, let's talk about my excellent Thanksgiving weekend!! My dad, mom, and brother Ryan flew in from Minnesota and Los Angeles (respectively) for the weekend. My mom and Ryan stayed with me in my apartment and my dad stayed with my brother and sister in-law down the road. We had a great time, with lots of eating involved - just the way I like it! :) I prepared the vegan feast for Ryan and myself (recreated last years' meal), and my sister in-law made the non-vegan meal for the rest of the fam. Here are some highlights of the weekend:

Andy, Ryan, and I took the win in our post-Thanksgiving meal game of Trivial Pursuit. (They aren't into all the photo opps like I am.)

We spent Black Friday on the National Mall. Our first visit to the *new* MLK Memorial!
My sister in-law treated us to Jersey Boys tickets. What a great show!! We were all thankful that she planned ahead and did that for us! :)
Ry and I went to Mount Vernon on Saturday, after Mom and Dad had headed back to MN. It was really cool - beautiful property right on the Potomac!

It was fun to be with my family (although I wish my sister and her family had also made the trip), and it was also great to check off some DC bucket-list items. Namely, MLK Memorial and Mount Vernon. I still have a few more to check off, so we'll see if I can get those taken care of before I depart.

I also want to share a vegan sloppy joe recipe I made a few weeks ago. It made a large batch, so I was eating them for days, but the flavor got better and better the longer it was in the fridge. I got this recipe from the Vegetarian Frugal Housewife - I searched through a lot of recipes, and this one has more of a sweet recipe, which is just the way Mom used to make 'em.

VEGAN SLOPPY JOES



1 12-oz pkg Smart Ground (or other vegan "ground beef" product)
2 whole cloves garlic
1 lrg or 2 med green bell peppers
16oz tomato sauce
1 medium diced onion
4 tbs soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs mustard
2-3 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp black pepper
6 tbs ketchup
1 tbs salt
3 tbs cider vinegar
1/2 cup tomato paste (or fresh tomato chunks)
pinch nutmeg
pinch oregano
3 tbs olive oil

1. Chop onions, garlic and peppers.
2. Fry Smart Ground in pan with olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Add spices and soy/worcetershire sauce.
4. Add chopped items and fry a bit more until onions soften.
5. Add remaining ingredients.
6. Stir. Cover. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes on low.
7. Test flavor and add more spices as needed.
8. Simmer 5 more minutes and serve over buns or bread.

I paired this with some steamed/mashed potatoes and cauliflower. It's got all the great flavor and texture of the potatoes, but it makes it slightly healthier by swapping out some potatoes in favor of the cauliflower. I mean, enough margarine, soy milk and salt, and you can mash just about anything into deliciousness, right?? :)

Enjoy! Back to apartment hunting I go. Getting SO excited about Beantown in 2012!

Beantown, Baby!

Okay, so I've been super bad about blogging the past few (many) months. It's been a combination of laziness and busyness. And because of the laziness and busyness, I haven't been cooking as much as I'd like, so fewer recipes to share. But I've got some big news! I'm moving to Boston!!!!


Let's rewind a few weeks! At the end of October, I had a head hunter reach out to me, asking me if I'd be interested in a Digital Media Supervisor position at Mullen (exactly the job I want at a really great ad agency) in Boston. My initial thought was, 'Nah...I want to move to LA, not Boston.' But I paused for a second and realized that I'd be happy to be on the east coast for a few more years...and Boston is a great city for advertising, *and* just a great city, in general. I've only been to Boston a couple of times, but I have some friends there. And, heck, this is the time in my life where I should embrace opportunities like this! Throw caution to the wind -- I'm young, not tied down by anything, working on building my career, and this is a GREAT chance to work at a GREAT agency.

So I replied to the recruiter, letting him know I would, in fact, be interested. I had a couple of phone interviews, and very quickly they asked if I would come up to Boston to meet with them in person. This was really cool - I've never been flown to another city to interview! (not to sound like a country bumpkin) They flew me up last Sunday night, put me up in a super nice hotel next to Faneuil Hall, and I interviewed at the agency the next morning. I knew they wanted to make a quick decision, and they weren't kidding! I received an offer yesterday (Friday) and accepted. SUPER EXCITED!

So here we are. In a matter of weeks, my entire life is changing. I've got a lot to take care of before I move in a couple of weeks, but I think the stress will all be worth it. I don't start until Jan 2nd, so I'll be moving up to Boston mid-December, storing my belongings and staying in corporate housing while I apartment hunt, then I'm turning around and driving to MN for my annual 2-week stay.
I had plans to fly to LA to celebrate my 30th bday (Dec 29th), and that has to be canceled, due to timing constraints, but I can make an LA trip in March or April. Not the end of the world. :)

I've always believed everything happens for a reason, and this really validates that for me. I was definitely ready for a career move and some new challenges, and getting to move to a new city is just the cherry on top. I'm going to miss DC and the great friends I have here. I'm also going to miss the families that I babysit for here - I've really fallen in love with some wonderful kids. BUT that's what Facebook is for, right?? :) And I'm sure I'll be back for some visits.

All that said, I also plan to get back to cooking more and blogging about recipes. So I won't be MIA for another 5 months! I made some really tasty vegan sloppy joes the other day, so I'll try to get those posted this week. :)

Cool as a Cucumber

I'm two weddings into my "summer of weddings".

In June, I went to Geneva, NY (in the Finger Lakes region of upstate) for my friend Sarah's wedding. She is one of my Phi Sigma Sigma sorority sisters from Syracuse and just a really great friend. It was a lovely wedding and I was able to catch up with a lot of friends who live all over the country.


Then, earlier this month, I hit the road for 19 hours (9 hrs there, 10 hrs back) and attended my friend Jen's wedding in Midland, MI. Jen and I share a lot of mutual friends and while we both attended Syracuse, I didn't get to know her until I moved to DC. I'm thankful to have her in my life and was happy to be a party of her perfect day!


I'm heading to Minnesota for my friend Cassie's wedding in a few weeks, which should be a wonderful time. I'm flying in Thursday, staying through Tuesday, so I can see lots of friends and family. This will probably be the only trip to MN until Christmas!

So that's what I've been up to...and trying to keep cool. It's TOASTY in DC right now. We had a heat index of 120-degrees this past week. "Crazy hot", I believe is the technical term. :) So I've been trying to keep my cooking cool - and not use the oven. At the same time, my sister and I are counting calories in an effort to lose weight, while supporting one another. We just started, but I had a very successful week. So, while the recipe I'm sharing today is not the healthiest option, the key is moderation. I've eaten what I want all week...but just limited my portions. I think this will work, long term, for me, since I'm not depriving myself.

Onto the recipe -- Creamy Cucumbers are something my mom has made for us for as long as I can remember. I always loved when our neighbors would bring over some cucumbers from their garden in the summer, because I knew Mom would be making these cukes. It's really easy, doesn't take much time or too many ingredients, and tastes delicious. It always made a great side dish to corn on the cob. I've, of course, veganized the recipe. Again - enjoy in moderation and keep cool!

Creamy Cucumbers

3-4 medium cucumbers
1 medium onion
1 cup Vegenaise (vegan mayo)
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar

Peel and slice the cucumbers into thin circles. Thinly slice onion. Combine, salt and let stand for about 15 minutes.
Combine the Vegenaise, vinegar and sugar with whisk and pour over veggies. Marinate in the refrigerator overnight for best flavor (or at least for a couple of hours).

Stew To Get Me Through The Week

Greetings all!! Busy, busy, busy. Wedding season is upon us. I have one wedding per month from June through October: upstate NY, Michigan, Minnesota, Annapolis, upstate NY. And I'm driving to all of them, except Minnesota, in my sweet new ride! So it should be a good chance to try 'er out on the open road. I'm trying to get in plenty of babysitting to plan ahead and cover the expenses involved in all that travel (and pet care), so it's rare to have a night "off". But tonight was one of those nights - babysitting job canceled last minute!

I have a scary Friday ahead, as my sweet Jakers needs to have surgery. He needs to have his teeth cleaned, which means they put him under anesthesia, AND they need to remove a "diseased" tooth and a small growth next to that tooth. My poor Boo Bear! I'll be dropping him off Friday morning, and picking him up that afternoon. I'm hoping to be busy at work, as a distraction, but it is going to be a scary day for this single mom.

So with that coming up, I wanted to cook something this week that would last me through my busy week and right into my weekend, since I won't be leaving Jakers' side while he's healing to cook or get take out.

Enter Rachael Ray. Now, I can't say I'm a fan. However, I ended up on one of her dozens of series on one of the cooking channels (I think it was THE Cooking Channel, actually) this weekend while I was cleaning my apartment. She happened to make this vegan stew (well, she had to ruin it with chicken broth, but that was an easy swap), so I DVR'ed the episode and later went back and jotted down the ingredients/recipe. It's a spicy zucchini potato stew. The problem was that when I went to chop ingredients, I discovered the 2 zucchinis I bought last week were soft and covered in white, fuzzy spots. Hmm. So I swapped in yellow squash and it seemed to work well. I honestly think you could do a lot of swapping to use up whatever you have on hand! This stew is hearty, has SO MUCH flavor, and could not possibly be healthier. It's literally a pot of delicious vegetables.

I happened to have some leftover biscuits that I made this weekend, so those made a great pairing. Oh, and I spent last weekend hanging out with my ADORABLE Little Sister from my sorority - who just happened to be in Baltimore with her hubby for Memorial Day - and she turned me on to a delicious red wine called Malbec (I'm not much of a wine connoisseur). I had a glass of that with dinner, which tasted great and helped mellow me out after a long day.

Hanging at the Baltimore Harbor with my Little and her hubby (Karen & Jason).

Quick side note: Once I got my veggies chopped, I realized my largest pot would not be able to contain all of this goodness, so I ended up having to use two pots!

2 pots o' goodness

So it makes a ton of stew, but it refrigerates (and probably freezes) really well, so that just means lots of leftovers. Enjoy!

Spicy Zucchini Potato Stew

• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 med zucchinis, thinly sliced
• 2 Fresno (I could only find Anaheim) chili peppers, thinly sliced
• 2 cubanelle peppers, thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 5-6 baby potatoes, thinly sliced
• 2-3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 sprigs of rosemary (I did a couple dashes of dried)
• 2 sprigs of thyme (I did a couple dashes of dried)
• salt & pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 28 oz can Italian style tomatoes
• 2 cups veggie broth

Pour an even coating of olive oil in the bottom of a (very) large pot, heat over medium heat. Add all the veggies and spices from zucchini through salt & pepper. Stir and cover, allow to simmer and wilt down.

Roast the red bell pepper over open flames. If you never done this before, it's actually really easy - turn gas stove on to low/med heat and set pepper on the burner, turning every few minutes until it's charred. (If you have an electric stove, use the broiler in your oven.)

Chop the roasted red pepper and add to mix, along with veg broth and tomatoes. (I added some, but not all, of the juice in the tomatoes.) Continue cooking, uncovered until the sauce thickens and veggies all soften. But don't cook so long that things end up mushy - you want the veggies intact.

I sprinkled a little nutritional yeast (you can use Parmesan cheese if you hate animals -- I kid, I kid!!) and dried parsley. Serves many ...like, I'll be eating this for a week+.

Ramen: Breakfast(?) of Champions

I just saw this link via thedailywhat - only the best website ever, which my brother Ryan turned me onto:
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2011/05/top_uses_for_top_ramen.php

I don't think I've given ramen noodles too many shout-outs, but I am a closet ramen lover. I actually just discussed this with my coworkers, when the smell of my ramen lunch wafted over the cubicle walls and someone said, "I smell ramen." Yes, I do choose to eat ramen on a regular basis. Not only is it SO affordable, but the Top Ramen brand of "Oriental" flavor is vegan and delicious! Not just for college students anymore!

I used ramen in this recipe for Fumi Salad, but I'm now inspired to think outside the box and find some other uses! The Seattle Weekly blog post (above) includes a breakfast burrito recipe that I think I might try and veganize with tofu instead of egg. I'll keep you posted.
GET EXCITED. :)

Living the High Life

I've had a rough few weeks. On April 8th, I was on my way home from work when another driver decided to make an illegal u-turn without looking in the lane next to him to see if there was someone there (why bother, right?). So he essentially turned right in front of me and I t-boned his driver's side.

The good news is that no one was hurt (the reckless driver had his two toddlers in the back seat). The bad news is the Foci (my 2005 Ford Focus) was totaled out. :( Don't get me wrong...she wasn't the fanciest of rides. But she was a good car. She's gotten me back and forth between MN and DC many-a-time. Oh, and she was paid off.

After several weeks of being in limbo, but falling in love with my rental car - a 2011 Hyundai Elantra, I ended up buying a 2011 Hyundai Sonata -- slightly larger, with a few more perks than the Elantra. But the dealership I went to made it TOTALLY worth my while to go with the next model up. I'm in love.

The new ride has bluetooth, XM radio and is so comfortable. It will totally make the ride to and from MN (and to and from the 5 weddings I have to attend this year!) so comfortable.

I'm just relieved to have that whole ordeal over with and be able to focus on other aspects of my life vs stressing about what I was going to do about a car!

Moving on - I've recently discovered something very exciting (well, exciting for me, but it doesn't take much to impress this girl). It's a pasta called Shirataki noodles. Based on my reading, it sounds like there are two types, but the one at my grocery store is tofu-based. They come packaged in a liquid (found in the produce section, near the tofu), and all you need to do is drain/rinse them, then boil them for 2-3 minutes. It's that easy!


One package contains two servings (although I was able to eat the whole thing, no problem) and contains only 6 grams of carbs and 40 calories!! CRAZY TALK! And it really has the same consistency of spaghetti noodles! They also sell it in fettuccine and angel hair, fyi.

I discovered, when I got home, that I didn't have any marinara sauce in my apartment. So I had to get crafty and make my own from scratch. Well, not totally from scratch - I had a can of tomato sauce, but it takes some work to make that into a tasty sauce! So I'm going to post the recipe I used (it was all eyeballing, so I have to guess on measurements). I liked this marinara so much that I might just always make it this way and skip the pre-made jar. Pair this HEALTHY pasta dish with some sauteed mushrooms and spinach, and you've got yourself a killer meal. (Although, full disclosure, I also ended up baking some of mom's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies after my healthy dinner!)

"Homemade" Marinara

• 14 oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1 small can of mushroom stems & pieces
• 1/4 white or yellow onion, diced
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 Tbsp dried oregano
• 1/2 Tbsp dried parsley
• A dash of cayenne pepper
  
• 1-2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  
• Salt & pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large skillet (or small pan, to keep splatter contained). Add mushrooms, onions and garlic. Satute, stirring regularly, for about 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and seasoning and stir well. Allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, allowing flavors to marinade. Continue to taste, adding seasoning as desired.

Drive safely out there...and enjoy some guilt-free pasta! :)