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!  

Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms

Today actually was the dinner that I said I was going to.  I think I've finally gotten my days straight.  Today is Monday right?  Okay well it's 12:02 here, so technically its Tuesday, but you know what I mean.  

My friend told me she was making soup, but I was anticipating a lack of protein, so I decided to make some stuffed mushrooms stuffed with quinoa.  I was incredibly pleased with my time-management, actually, but the shrooms were good too!  

Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms

Pre-oven

About 16 baby bella or white mushrooms (enough to fill a square baking dish)

3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsbp salt free seasoning (I used Emeril's Chicken Rub:  red pepper, paprika, poultry seasoning, etc) 

1 1/4 cup cooked quinoa

3 tbsp dried basil

3 tsbp dried parsley

1.5 tbsp nutritional yeast

3-4 tbsp vegan cream cheese

salt & pepper to taste

paprika

1.  Preheat oven to 400.  Prepare baking by coating with a thin layer of oil, or use cooking spray.

2.  Stem and clean mushroom caps by brushing with a damp towel.

3.  Heat olive oil in pan.  Add garlic and saute for a few minutes, then add salt free seasoning, mixing to coat.  

4.  Add quinoa, basil, parsely, and nutritional yeast until well combined.

5.  Add cream cheese and mix well 

6.  Salt and pepper to taste.  

7.  Fill mushrooms with stuffing, sprinkle with paprika, and cook in preheated oven for 20 minutes, uncovered.  

Per Mushroom (about 3 per person would make a good appetizer serving):

Nutrition Information:  41.8 Calories;  1.8g Total Fat;  0.3g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  5.1g Carbohydrates;  1.3g Fiber;  2.0g Protein

Oh, cutest thing, my friend tried really hard to make stuff that I could eat.  She wanted to make potato leek soup, so I sent her a bunch of vegan recipes for it, and then she found her own recipe for vegan pesto.  When I got there, she said it came out really well, but she didn't understand why it told her to put yeast in it.  Too cute, she put regular yeast in it, when it obviously (to vegans) meant nutritional yeast.  It was seriously delicious though, even with the regular yeast.

We had a fun night, we ate, drank, there was a ton of food and not enough people to eat it.  Then we played Apples to Apples and Partini.  I am a big fan of Apples to Apples, I think because I am pretty good at reading people, so I often win.  I'm pretty competitive, so...I like any game I have a decent of winning, haha.  We were really frustrated with Partini at first, it seemed to hard, but it ended up being a lot of fun...so much so that I didn't realize how badly we were losing, and I actually didn't even care (shocker!!).

It still feels like the weekend to me!  My brother is home from school, my dad is home from work, I am just so damned confused.  So, I guess I should end this by telling everyone to have a great week!

Today's Cooking Song of the Day:  "Don't Look Back in Anger" - Oasis