Remember That Time...

....that I had a blog, but never added any new posts? Oh yeah. That's right.

I've had a lot going on. I'm no longer with PETA. Thank God. It was not a good fit. I'm not a believer in micro-management, as I have faith in those that I work with. I also have compassion and love for both animals AND humans. Which is not the case for most folks there. The last few weeks were painful. I've never been treated so poorly in my life.

Anyhow, I had a good "in" at the DC Children's Hospital (Children's National Medical Center), so was able to line up a position in the Pathology dept pretty darn quickly, so bills are paid. :) It's about the exact opposite of what I've done in the past (read: science-related), but it's been great. Such a wonderful work environment - I'm valued, trusted and appreciated. So it's a great space filler until I find my next great move in my Communications/Advertising career.

I will say that the two weeks of time I had off between the two jobs was also incredible! I LOVED staying home. I don't think I could ever get bored with staying at home all day. It would be nice to have some additional spending money on top of the free time. But my apartment was SO CLEAN -- and Jakers got about 12 walks a day. :)

So there's a quick update. I'll try to get back on my blogging game now, too! Some great recipes to share...as always!

A Little Late in the Season

I'm really excited about this weekend! I'm attending a Baltimore Orioles game with some friends on Sunday. Just in the knick of the time, with playoffs starting next week! I am an on-again, off-again MLB fan. I mean, I always enjoy baseball, but some years I'm able to follow the season better than others. This was not one of those seasons. And although I'm a MN Twins fan through and through, I think it will be really fun to check out another team and my Dad keeps insisting Camden Yards is supposed to be a gorgeous stadium. So that should be fun.

In anticipation of spending some money this weekend, I wanted to save some money on dinner tonight. I looked in my cupboards and noticed how many cans of various beans I had. Why would I buy cannelloni beans, kidney beans and lima beans? And they were all purchased on separate occasions. Hmm. Well, I put 'em to good use and made soup. I ended up making 4 quarts, so I froze some and plan to eat the rest over the weekend, but I did come number-crunching and I think I made all 4 qts for under $10! Maybe someday I'll have my finances under control! :) Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised with how delicious this turned out. I hope you, too, enjoy this recipe!

Becky's Bean & Veggie Soup

8 cups veggie broth
olive oil
~10 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
3 cans of beans - I think any would work, but I used cannelloni, kidney and lima
4 celery stalks
3 carrots
3 red potatoes
salt, pepper
Old Bay Seasoning (or some other seasoning with a little kick)

Chop onion and garlic cloves, saute in olive oil in large pot (4 qts or larger) until onions become translucent. Add veggie broth and bring to boil. Add salt, pepper and other seasonings. Rinse beans and add to pot. Bring to boil and reduce heat, simmering for about 45 mins. Add chopped carrots, celery and potatoes and simmer another hour.

Serve with bread or crackers. Refrigerate or freeze leftovers.

Long Time, No Post!

Sorry about my lag time in posting! But it's Labor Day Weekend and I've got VERY little going on, so plenty of time to post today. :) I'm happy to have three straight days of relaxing and catching up on housework.

Although, my weekend started out kind of rough. Jakers had an emergency vet visit on Saturday morning, and we found out he had a scratch across his eye. Aww! Poor babe! The vet is guessing a cat (perhaps by the name of Mabel?) :) is the culprit. So he's on pain meds and eye drops all weekend. Makes me glad that I didn't plan a trip for this weekend! Plus, I've been back and forth to MN twice in the past month for friends' weddings, so I could use a weekend at home.

Of course I can't have a weekend sans-baking, so I just finished taking my oatmeal raisin cookies out of the oven. I'm not even that big of a fan of oatmeal raisin, but I don't have any vegan chocolate chips in the house, so had to try something new. These are SO GOOD. I think I'll have to bake a full batch (I only made half, so I could have some sweets in the house, but not risk binging!) and bring them into work this week. Just that good.

Try 'em out and let me know what you think! :)

Soft 'n Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

• 3/4 cup margarine (make sure it's vegan!)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup raisins
• 3 cups rolled or quick cooking oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Beat together the sugar, brown sugar, vegan margarine and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Add the soy milk and mix until combined.

Add the flour, baking soda, salt and spices, and stir until well mixed. Add raisins and oatmeal.

Drop by 3 inch balls onto cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until done. Cookies will still be slightly soft and chewy. Perfecto!

See, I Can Have Fun!

I had a really fun time out in DC last night. A couple of friends did a joint birthday party and so I met up with them at a bar in DuPont Circle -- very near my office, actually. I took the Metro in, so I wouldn't have to worry about driving...or parking. I'm very comfortable with my orange line -- it takes me to and from work everyday. Now granted, my office is technically closest to a red line stop, but I'd rather avoid transferring lines and just walk a bit further from an orange line stop. But last night, I was in heels, so I figured I'd take do the transfer. I get to Metro Place, get off the orange and wait 25 minutes (oy) for the next red train. Promptly strut my stuff onto the train, only to realize I've waited 25 minutes for a train in the WRONG DIRECTION. I've lived here 4 months. I should know better. At that point I think "screw it" and get off at China Town/Gallery Place and go upstairs and pay the $8 for a cab to take me to the bar.

Bar close is 3:00am. Wow. For someone who prefers a 9pm bedtime, this is rough. But I got home a little before 4:00am and eat three chocolate chip muffins before bed(!) I shouldn't bake before going out partying. The temptation is just too great. I will, however, post the recipe below for you to enjoy.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins
1/2 cup vegan margarine, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 "eggs" (I always use Ener-G Egg Replacer.)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup soy or rice milk
1 tablespoon cold water
1 cup vegan semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Either grease 10 muffin cups or use paper liners.

Cream the margarine with an electric mixer until soft. Add both sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in the "eggs".

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Fold this into the margarine mixture, alternating with the soy milk.

Beat in the tablespoon of cold water for about 10 - 15 seconds - just enough for it to mix in with the rest of the batter. Fold in chocolate chips.

Pour batter evenly into the 10 greased/papered muffin cups. Fill the empty cups half full with water to ensure even baking.

Bake for 25 minutes, until lightly browned. Let stand in the muffin pan on a wire rack for about 5 - 7 minutes before lifting them out.

When Life Gives you Lemons

I recently purchased an electric citrus juicer. Long story about why, but I am so happy with this purchase. Have you ever made fresh OJ? I mean FRESH OJ. I have been enjoying plenty of that lately. I also have been making some lemon desserts and lemon poppyseed muffins, using the fresh lemon juice.


I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I've got some great new recipes to share, so will try to be more on top of my game. :)

Are We Ever Truly Settled?

Well, it's been almost four months since I picked up and moved from my beloved Minneapolis to the amazing DC metro. I love my apartment and I love my location, so I think I'll be here for a couple of years. Therefore I'd like to make it a bit more homey feeling by painting a couple of walls. I'm thinking about doing that this weekend. Just a couple of accent walls, nothing fancy.

It's weird, I feel like that's the last thing on my to-do list since moving. I've hung curtains, gotten some extra furniture, hung the pictures and unpacked the last box. What am I going to stress about and write lists for once that's taken care of?! I guess I'll have to find a hobby. :)

Speaking of making things homey, let's talk comfort food! I've discovered this great recipe on my friend's (and fellow animal activist) blog. It's a vegan mac & cheese. I'm getting to a point where it's hard to tell how things taste from a meat eaters' palette. I mean, I think this tastes like delicious, creamy mac & cheese. But if you taste it side-by-side with the cruelty-filled version, would it taste strange? It's been over a year for me, so I don't know! What I do know is that I LOVE this version and not a single animal suffers for it!

Vegan Mac 'n' Cheese

Ingredients:

Full package of macaroni
1/2 cup margarine or vegan butter equivalent
1/2 cup flour
3 1/2 cups boiling water or vegetable broth
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs. soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup (or less) canola oil
1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
Cajun seasoning to garnish (I topped with a little cayenne pepper, as that's all I had)

Directions:

Begin process of cooking the noodles.

While you're doing that, make the sauce:

Mix the vegan butter and flour and melt on a very low heat until they are thoroughly mixed.

Add the boiling water or vegan stock, salt, soy sauce, garlic, turmeric.

Bring to a very low boil.

Then add vegetable oil and nutritional yeast and mix.

Combine the noodles and the sauce in a large baking pan and sprinkle Cajun seasoning on top.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Running My Butt Off....Literally?

I'm running another marathon! I'm super excited to have a goal and something to work towards. AND something to get my butt out of bed and out for a run in the morning. One of my friends from high school who now lives in Florida is running the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon in December, so I decided to bite the bullet and run the full marathon. The one problem is it's on a Sunday and since it's the week before Christmas, I don't think I'll be able to get Monday off. So the flight home the afternoon after the race is gonna be a rough one. And my two mile walk into work the next morning ain't gonna be so pretty either. But who cares?! I'll feel so good after completing marathon #4, that it won't matter. I'll be walking on air. :) (I know, that's total b.s.)

Along with my running, I'm also altering my diet. Which is something I should have already done, but I'm focusing more on veggies and less on cookies. I wish I didn't love baking so much! But I need to do this to optimize my training. I've never trained for a marathon as a vegan.

I found this great recipe for a mock tuna salad - it's a chick pea salad, but is so tasty. It was on Compassionate Action for Animals' website -- that's the animal advocacy group in Minnesota that first got me interested in the cause. Tonight's dinner was a delicious chick pea salad sandwich with steamed fresh green beans with sauteed onions. YUMMERS. Recipe below. See ya on the roads!

Chick Pea Salad

• 2(15oz.) cans chick-peas, drained
  
• ¾ cup vegan mayonnaise
• 2/3 cup minced celery
• 1/3 cup minced dill pickle
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 teaspoon soy sauce
• ½ salt, or 1 tablespoon miso
• pepper, to taste

In a medium bowl, mash the chick-peas coarsely with a fork. Mix in the remaining ingredients, using ½ cup mayonnaise at first, and then adding more as needed. cover and refrigerate. Use on sandwiches or on a bed of salad greens. (Note: makes a big helping, may want to half the recipe!)