Screw You, Stir-Fry Sauce

We’ve been house hunting a few nights a week in the evening. By the time we’re done it is dinner time, and we want to eat. Immediately. Yesterday I thought stir-fry would be good, and in the past, the easiest way for me to do this was with stir-fry sauce.

I don’t know if I missed it on the brand I used to buy, but my husband picked one up and said it had fish in it. Okay fine. I picked up another one that seemed okay, bought some tofu and off we went.

We got home and marinated the tofu, and then started stir-fryin it up. What made me look at the label again I’m not sure. But there it was, glaring at me: oyster sauce. Oyster sauce. I should have known. I should have been more thorough. I should have been less lazy and made my own sauce.

Out went the sauce, and the tofu that had been marinating in it. Out went my mood too. Waste of money, waste of food, and...where was dinner?

Alright, the peppers and onions were still good to go, and there was some garlic in there too. Broccoli was already cooking up in the microwave. We could keep it just veggie, but we had two hungry people to feed. In went a can of chickpeas. While those warmed, we cut up a mango, and thought about the sauce.

My new favorite thing is Thai Chili Sauce. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve used this stuff in the past week. I’ve been using it as a dip for spring rolls, dipping sauce for our dumplings, and now a stir fry sauce. We poured in about 6 Tbsp of the Thai Chili Sauce, added 2-3 Tbsp tamari, and 1/4 cup of pineapple juice. I might have thrown in some extra crushed red pepper too.

Success. Really really good success. I mean, after that I would have been happy with something just edible, but this was really good.

The corn was good too!

So maybe I should be thanking the stir-fry sauce, and not cursing it, but it still wasted all that food. I guess its a draw!

And...now I need to go buy some more Thai Chili Sauce, I think that stuff is going to start flowing through my veins.

Hawaii Part 2 - The Food

While I was a vegetarian for part of time that I was in Hawaii, I still had to really start exploring food like I do now.  So, I was really looking forward to trying a few new places, visiting a few new favorites, and picking up as much cool foodstuffs as I could.  

Oh, and I was successful.  Note to self, next time, bring a bigger bag.

I knew exactly where I wanted to go for dinner when I got into Honolulu:  The Big City Diner.  This place is about as vegan as it sounds, but I knew that they had a stir fry with tofu that I love.  One of the good things about Hawaii is that they have a really heavy Asian  influence (a lot of Japanese immigrants, specifically), so they tend to offer tofu more than some other places, where it is purely thought of as a vegetarian food option.  Sadly, I was in too much of a rush to even think about finding my camera and taking a picture, but I had the Mamasan's Vegetable Stir Fry, which is broccoli, bamboo shoots, peppers, carrots, onions, and tofu, over brown rice, with a little sprinkle of some kind of seaweed topping.  

After that, we walked to the grocery store, because my husband is sick, and needed some sinus relief.  For some reason....I seemed to think I had much more time in Hawaii than I thought.  I spent awhile in the "ethnic" food aisle, which had tons of stuff that I wanted to get, but I wanted to go back when we weren't rushed (we were on our way to the turtles).  That never happened, I didn't have an ounce of room for more stuff come Saturday!

I know, I know, no pictures yet!  But chill out, relax...this is a post about Hawaii, remember?

Okay, for breakfast, we stayed on the North Shore.  I knew I'd be able to create myself a filling vegan breakfast at Cafe Hale'iwa.  I had sauteed veggies, vegetarian pinto beans, and half an avocado.  If you ever happen to go here, and are vegan, be sure to ask for no cheese on the beans.    

Across from Cafe Hale'iwa is a natural foods store called Celestial Foods.  They had a pretty nice selection of stuff, some that you see at every natural food store, some that I have never seen before.  A good bit of it was local too, like the fruit that I bought, so that was awesome!  

Next was the Dole Plantation.  I know, ::cringes:: this is horribly touristy, and I have honestly never been there before without visitors.  However, since I have been there with visitors, I knew that they have lots of cool food stuffs.  

The loot from both places:

Organic baby pears, local bananas and tangerines

A stash of bars, of course.  I had never seen the Vega bars before, and tried them, even though I'm not a huge fan of the Vega powder.  They were both really good!  The Raw Organic Chocolately Chip I had already tried, when Heather sent me one on my Perfect Day, and I had to buy it again.  I was also super excited to try the Glenny's Marshmallow Treat, but I thought it was just okay...but it may have been the warm weather.  

These are both locally made.  The Spirulina Popcorn was really interesting, made with spirulina and nutritional yeast.  The raw crackers are made on Maui, and they had a mediterranean flavor, sun-dried tomatoes and whatnot.

Artisana raw Cacao Bliss.  This stuff is amazing.  If you ever find it, you should buy it!  The Mini Sesame Crepes are awesome also.  They are made of sesame seeds, brown rice syrup, pineapple, salt, etc, all good(ish) stuff.  The bag on the right is a mix of taro, purple sweet potato, and orange sweet potato sticks.    

After all that, we decided some relaxing on the beach would be nice.  We went to our favorite beach, Lanikai (which I posted pictures of yesterday), but stopped in Kailua for lunch beforehand.  Even though we shopped and then took the scenic route, I was still pretty held over from lunch.  So I stopped at Lanikai Juice and got a Da Kine smoothie:  Oranges, Bananas, Papaya, Pineapple, and Lilikoi (which is akin to passionfruit).  We also went to Maui Tacos, because my husband wanted something more substantial.  I just got a bean taco.  We ate on the beach!

Unfortunately, they kind of duped us.  They must have run out of beans or something, because my bean taco...was a tomato taco.  Yes, I asked for the to put tomatoes on it ALSO, but not instead.  This was later confirmed when my husband realized his burrito was beanless also.  Usually Maui Tacos is one of my favorite places, the Paia Burrito is my favorite, with beans, avocado, tomatoes, and rice.

We had dinner back up in Hale'iwa (the North Shore).  Hale'iwa Eats is a popular little Thai place, that I had been to once, back in 2006, before I really started to appreciate food.  I figured I had to try it again.  My dinner, a Panang Curry (of course) was fantastic!  It was really really good, and my husband had a Pineapple Shrimp Curry that was also good.  The lighting in there was really low, and I didn't get any sharing-worthy pictures.  

Sunday morning I was already excited for.  We got up early and I had some fruit and a Sesame Mini Crepe to tide me over until "lunch" (in quotes because we got up at 7, so "lunch" was at like, 10:30).  

We went to the Paradise Found Cafe, which is behind the Celestial Foods store.  They are really popular for their smoothies, which my husband tried:

I'm not sure what it was.  It tasted apple-y, and it was really good.  

I wanted "real" food though.  As far as I know, this is the only purely vegetarian restaurant on the island.  The downside is that it is DEFINITELY vegetarian, not vegan, there is a lot of egg and cheese on the menu, but it is a totally awesome, kind of hole-in-the-wall sort of place...and exact atmosphere you would expect on the North Shore.  The owner does all the cooking, and he is really friendly.  

As for what I had...well, if you've been to Hawaii, you may be familiar with "Drive-Ins" and the plate lunch.  Drive-Ins...well you don't drive in to them, drive up to them, anything like that.  You drive TO them, then park and walk to them, like almost any other restaurant.  Its weird.  Anyway, they are famous for the plate lunch, which is meat, white rice, and mac salad.  Its really gross..my husband loves it.  One of the sections on Paradise Found's menu was plate lunches, and I was hungry, so I went for it.  I had the Garlic Walnut Tempeh, which was such a nice change of pace after all the beans and tofu I had been rotating through.  

    

Marinated Tempeh with Sauteed Veggies (broccoli, peppers, carrots) and walnuts.  Brown rice instead of white, and a light green salad with sprouts, and some cilantro lime dressing on the side.  

Okay, this was fantastic.  I can't wait to go back for Spring Break so that I can eat there again.  My husband had a huge chili burrito, that he didn't believe was vegetarian until I pointed out to him on the menu that it was a "vegetarian cafe".  Silly guy.  On my way out, of course, I had to stop at Celestial Foods again, and I picked up something I hadn't seen the first time around...vegan gummy bears!

I just realized I photographed the French side!

Have I ever mentioned that in my pre-vegan, pre-healthy, days, I LOVED stuff like this?  I loved gummy bears, jelly beans, lemon heads, etc.  In high school, I would go to the candy store and buy a big bag of Jelly Bellies, and eat them throughout the day.  Oh to be young and have a metabolism that doesn't care.  It caught up in college, I gained 30 pounds.  Oops.  

The rest of the day, as I mentioned yesterday, was boring.  We got him a cell phone, we went to Borders, etc.  At the recommendation of the chef at Paradise Found, we stopped at Down to Earth, an all vegetarian, natural food store in Honolulu, to pick up some prepared stuff to bring on the plane.  While we were there we had some pizza (even my husband had vegan pizza, he is trying to stop eating dairy).    

I also found some sweet & sara marshmallows while I was there.  I found it odd that I haven't seen these in any stores near me (in MY, where the company is based), but I found it in Hawaii.  All in all...I think they're okay.  You may guess that, in my love of sugar, I loved marshmallows.  Well, you would be correct.  I was possibly Peeps' biggest fan.  No more.  So, these didn't live up to that, they were too dense, and just tasted like sugar to me.  I dunno.  I'll probably eat them anyway.   

For the plane, I had initially bought a bunch of fruit, but soon remembered that you can't bring fruit through the agricultural inspection.  Crap.  I got food from the prepared food bar.  I did take a picture, but I am lazy and didn't upload it yet.  I got some "Chik'n" style tofu, curries quinoa with currants, and a really awesome sweet and spicy veggie salad.  I soon learned that you also can't bring tomatoes, green peppers, and cucumbers in prepared food (I asked).  I didn't know this, so I had to eat it all out of the veggies before I went through, but they didn't even check it.

And then...I flew home.  I actually slept on the first flight, for almost all of it.  And I feel like I've been half-asleep ever since.  

I'm sorry I haven't caught up on everyone's blogs, but I'm at least caught up on the last few days!  And for those of you who asked for a CD, I *am* still sending it, I promise, I'm just a little backlogged :)   

Vegan in the Cities

I had a kind of interesting weekend.  Mainly because I spent over 15 hours of it traveling.  I think what made it so interesting is that I am still feeling quite sane. 

Yesterday started pretty great.  Since I am somewhat used to getting up early now, I was up at 7, and decided to make something fun for breakfast before yoga.  

Waffles!  Chocolate Cherry White Chocolate Chip Protein Waffles, to be exact.  I know you're all saying "recipe, please?" (maybe not, but I'm pretending you are), but I have some things I want to change.  They're based off of the Brownie Waffle recipe from Veganomicon, and they're good, but they are not quite deserving of recipe sharing yet.  They will make a great portable breakfast this week though.  

After yoga, I went down to Brooklyn to have dinner with some friends.  It is only about an hour train ride to the city.  But the train that comes closest to my house runs pretty infrequently on the weekends, so I drive down to Jersey.  That is about a half hour.  Then the train itself takes about an hour and a half, counting the waiting and switching trains once.  Then, walking to the subway station, waiting for the subway, and getting to his house...another hour, easy.  I know that doesn't add up exactly to 3 and a half hours, but that was how long it took.  

Whenever I go to see this particular friend, we get Thai food.  It is my most favorite type of food.  Who doesn't love a good Thai curry?  So, first we went to Trader Joe's because I had to get a gift certificate, and then we found a little Thai place that ended up being awesome.  It was called Cafe Chili.  I didn't get any pictures, but I had the Vegetable Spring Rolls and Panang Curry.  One of our friends, who was also down this weekend, studied abroad and then lived in Thailand for quite awhile, and he was telling me how he had actually been to Panang.  I googled it, and I think he meant Penang, but close enough, right?  My husband studied abroad in Thailand too, so I've heard more than I really want to hear about the place.  Anyway, my curry was fantastic.  I have Thai food rarely, so its okay that it is one of the only time I am a member of the Perfectly Spotlessly Clean Plate Club.  I never eat white rice, but as soon as I have a bowl of curry sauce in front of me, I am using it to sop all that up.  So delicious.    

After that, we hung out for a little, and then I made the trek back to my house.  It would be so much faster to drive, but I'd much rather chill out with my music then stress about driving in the city.  Normally, a day like this would irritate me so much, but the playlist the iTunes Genius created was so awesome, that I was completely relaxed and happy the whole time.  

This is a small sampling of said playlist, which is 100 songs based off of 'I Believe in Symmetry' by Bright Eyes:

'Hooray' - Minus the Bear

'Sundress' - Ben Kweller

'People as Places as People' - Modest Mouse

'Yankee Bayonet' - The Decemberists

'Act appalled I' - Circa Survive

'Pink Bullets' - The Shins

'Across the Sea' - Weezer

'I'm Ready, I Am' - The Format

'The Same Boy You've Always Known' - The White Stripes

'Cashmir Pulaski Day' - Sufjan Stevens

'Ask Me Antyhing' - The Strokes

'My Mind' - Portugal.  The Man

'Play Crack the Sky' - Brand New

'Time' - Ben Folds

'Still Take You Home' - The Arctic Monkeys

'Come on Home' - Franz Ferdinand

Those songs are some of my favorites.  If you're curious, or just want some new music, leave me a comment, or send me an email (its in my profile), and I'll send you a CD!

I wanted to post this all yesterday, but I was up against this:  

Sorry Mommy, I'm using the computer right now

Moving on, today I went up to Boston with my family to see my brother and his wife, for her birthday.  After yesterday, I actually went home and bought the new(ish) Format CD, B-sides and Rarities, which is both a bunch of new songs that weren't previously released, and some demo versions of older songs.  If you aren't aware, The Format is longer together, which is very sad.  So, I've been listening to that, Ben Folds, Flight of the Conchords, and Ben Kweller.  Loveliness! 

Now, I mentioned above that Thai food is my favorite, but I rarely get to have it (I don't exactly live in a cosmopolitan area), so imagine my surprise when my not-so-adventurous mom agreed to my brother's suggestion to get Thai!  Twice in one weekend!  Plus, I'm sure I'll be having it in Hawaii this weekend too.  

I don't remember the name of this place, but it wasn't as good...but I also didn't get what I normally get...because I had it the day before!  

For an appetizer here, we had the Vegetable Triangles, which was actually curried potatoes in peas in little fried wrappers.  Pretty yummy!  

My main dish was pretty healthy, steamed veggies with tofu and peanut sauce on the side.  I didn't want to go crazy after having all that curry and rice the day before.  It was good, and the peanut sauce kept getting better as I kept eating it.

After that...oh after that.  We went to the Amsterdam Cafe for frozen yogurt.  They had chocolate and vanilla yogurt, as well as sugar free vanilla, and dairy free vanilla.  They called it "tofu frozen yogurt"...geez, way to turn people off.  Anyway, they had a list of about 30 possible mix ins.  As would be expected, this took me quite awhile.  Minty?  Cookies?  Candy?  Fruit?  Nuts?  Oh my goodness, too many decisions!  I ended up getting the dairy free vanilla with peaches and coconut.  

This was so good.  I almost wanted to move to Boston for it (they even deliver!!)....then we walked outside again and I changed my mind, haha.  It was COLD.  

Now I am back home and it is nice and warm.  

I hope everyone had fabulous weekends!  I am getting all geared up for Hawaii this coming weekend, and I am mucho excited.  We're staying on the North Shore, at Turtle Bay (in case you wanted to stalk me), which...normally I would rather stay in Waikiki or a B&B on the East Side, but my husband wanted to stay there, and now that I've seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall a bunch of times, I really want to go!  I am so looking forward to going back, I totally miss it.  

I also start classes this week, which I am not looking forward to.  My thesis class is going to be a crazy amount of work.  I can bring my computer to class though, haha, so it'll probably give me some time to catch up on blogs and other internet things, actually!  For a teacher, I'm not a very good student.   

Oh, and I wanted to set a goal for myself for this week.  I've gotten the sleep schedule under control, I've got the feeding schedule under control too.  But I definitely have not been drinking enough water.  So, my goal for this week is 4 liters a day.

Let the week begin!