happy anniversary!

Yes, today is the six month anniversary of my veganism. On one hand, it seems like forever, but on the other I actually can't believe it's been six months already. It just seems like yesterday that I went cold turkey on meat, dairy, refined flour, and refined sugar (I've loosened up on the last two).

Most of my family/friends didn't really understand why I had all of a sudden choose to stop eating meat and dairy (which is totally understandable because I go through many phases and change my mind constantly). Here is why I decided to be vegan:

1. I had gained the Freshman 15.

Or rather, 25.

And I didn't feel like myself anymore. Gaining weight really does something to your self esteem. I tried a lot of different diets, but none of them lasted long because I have no self control. Once I became vegan, not only did I feel better, but I also lost 10 pounds in my first month just by giving up meat and dairy, and I am now back down to my high school weight.

2. After reading a book and researching, I realized that our bodies are not designed to digest cow's milk. If you have a hard time believing this, I urge you to do some research yourself. The book Skinny *ahem* Witch does a great job of explaining it in layman's terms. 

3. I HAVE NO SELF CONTROL. None. If something is on the plate, I will eat it. All of it. Luckily, I mostly eat vegetables anyway, so it's all good. Not having to worry about counting calories or fat grams has really worked for me because I can eat a LOT (and I do) and not gain weight; everything I eat is really low in calories. 

4. Although I originally became vegan for nutrition reasons rather than animal reasons, I have come to realize that animals should be treated with respect. I'm going to bite my tongue and not go off on a tangent, but I encourage everyone in the whole world to at least watch Food, Inc. It's on Netflix. No excuse. 

If you are having trouble losing weight or just don't feel good about yourself anymore, I would really look into veganism. Research your stuff before giving up meat and dairy though, because people will try to argue with you. (NOTE: Do not argue with me unless you know what you're talking about. Huge pet peeve.)

Educate yourself. Know why you eat the things that you eat. Don't rely on the media, because the food industry is just like any other industry; their main motive is to make money. 

On a completely unrelated topic, I want to show the world my wedding invitations.

They were done by the very talented Rachel Wambach, who is a mind reader.

Let's start from the beginning (to get the full experience).

The envelopes:

My mom made me blur my address. Something about "privacy"? What's that?

Oh wow! Look how nice the colors look.

And look how all the inserts are in descending order!

And...is that us as a silhouette? Yes. Yes it is.

I wish I could take all the credit, but Rachel is the true mastermind. 

All of the graphics/the main font are hand drawn.

The whole set.

 I wish I could describe what a pain it was to print our names at the bottom of the pictures,

but no one would understand.

Thanks to my mother for hand feeding all 275 of the envelopes into the printer,

to Madi for printing, messing up, and printing more of the pictures,

to Brooke for helping me "lick" all of the envelopes,

and to Jeffrey for helping me stuff the stuff.

cupcake fail

I don't think I have ever messed up a cupcake recipe so badly that I didn't want to eat at least three. However, when I tried to veganize my chocolate-chip cookie dough cupcake recipe, something was lost in translation and the cupcakes were so bad I didn't even finish mine. 

I attruibe my failure to the following things:


1. Despite my better judgement, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate. I hate semi-sweet. Hate. But I bought the stupid Ghiradelli semi-sweets at Wal-Mart because they were the only vegan chocolate chips there (I had heard through the grapevine that Sam's Choice baking chips were vegan, but they were nowhere to be found) and I was too lazy/cheap to go to a health food store.

Gah, devil chocolate. 

2. The cookie dough recipe sucked. It was the first (and last) time I had used it. It was like eating gross vegan cardboard. Just for fun, I baked some rolls of cookie dough and they turned out like this:

How could these possibly be good? They look like Cookie Monster turds.

3. The vanilla extract I used was way stronger than any other brand I've ever used. I should've suspected something when the bottle is this big:

I picked it up at the asian market, if that explains things.

(what am I watching on tv?)

4. I might have baked them a tad too long. That's a my bad. 




Anyway, to correctly make these otherwise delicious desserts, simply make a cookie dough recipe (break-and-bake for non-vegs) and a chocolate cake recipe (boxed cake for non-vegs). Freeze the cookie dough for at least four hours. Then, after the cake batter is poured into the liners, place a chunk of cookie dough on top of each cupcake and bake at 350° for about 20 minutes. Ice it. That's it.

I will find a decent cookie recipe and I will find Sam's Choice baking chips. Mark my words. 

NOTE: How much I love you is directly related to how soon

I receive your RSVPs.

Seeing these little red envelopes in my mailbox brings me joy.

ALSO, shout out to my Columbian friends for buying me this awesome apron:

Heyyy.

cinnamon honey bread

Let me preface this by saying, yes, many vegans do not eat honey. I am not one of them. Not only do I eat honey, I drink it, devour it, etc. So yeah, I do like to take a perfectly good whole wheat bread recipe and tweak it to incorporate honey (and cinnamon)(and cinnamon sugar). This bread should also be called lazy bread because there is no need to knead it (get it? get the pun?) And--probably my biggest bread-related accomplishment--it's Jeffrey-approved.

 

You need:

-3 c. whole wheat flour (I use Hodgson Mill because it's bomb)

-1/3 c. sugar 

-1/2 T salt

-1 yeast packet

-3/4 T cinnamon (or a whole tablespoon, whatever)

-1 2/3 c. warm water

-honey (or agave nectar) to taste

-cinnamon sugar to taste

First, mix all the dry ingredients together.

Yes, including the yeast.

Next, add the water and mix throughly.

After it's mixed, plop the batter into a oiled loaf pan and smooth out the top.

Cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour.

Once it's risen, coat (not sprinkle) the top with cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 400° for about 30 minutes. Don't cook it for too long

because the crust can get really intense and you'll need a chisel to cut it.  

While it's still warm, poke fork holes in the top running along the

long side of the loaf. More holes=more honey seepage.

Pour the honey into the holes. Don't be shy. 

After a couple of minutes, it should look like this:

YES.

Cut slices and devour. It's very rich, so small slices will suffice.

Regrettably, my fork holes did not run as deep as I would've liked.

ALSO, I got mail!

It's the wedding announcement I mailed myself.

I'm so excited to open it.

easy sesame noodles

Living with non-vegans can have its challenges, but the biggest one is trying to find a dish that everyone can eat/like. These noodles are great because you can serve them with some steamed veggies for a healthy, portable lunch or throw in some (free range) chicken to shut everyone up. 

You'll need:

-1 box of whole wheat linguini

-1/2 c. sesame oil

-3/4 c. soy sauce (less if you like more sweet than salty)

-1/3 c. sugar

-green onion

-sesame seeds

First, boil and strain the linguini. 

While the pasta is boiling, make the sauce. Shake up the sesame oil, soy sauce,

and sugar in a bowl (or a water bottle, whatever).

Now combine the noodles, sauce, sesame seeds, and green onion.

Don't put in too many sesame seeds, like I did. 

I also tried to shake up everything in a gallon bag; don't do this. It 

gets very hot. Just use a bowl like a normal person. 

Look at that killer meal! 

The meatloaf looking thing is actually bread.

Whole-wheat cinnamon honey bread, in fact.

Gahh!! So beautiful!

I highly suggest refraining from inhaling the entire batch of noodles and saving some for breakfast the next morning. I may even like it better day-old and cold than warm. It is that delicious. 

Oh, and Oreos are vegan.

Deep fried Oreos, however, are not. 

I'm working on it. It will happen.

Happy birthday, Michelle!

in no relation to veganism...

The announcements have officially almost been mailed, so I can now post the engagement photos that were contenders for our announcements. All pictures were taken by Michael Stanfill, a local photographer and family friend, and you can check out his website for more of his amazing work. 

You can view the rest of our pictures at our wedding website. In about a week, I'll put some pictures up of our wedding announcements (I love them so much!), which were designed by a local graphic designer. 


Tomorrow=birthday picnic=recipe that I'm really excited about. 

pumpkin spice cupcakes

I was really excited when my bff Michelle requested pumpkin spice cupcakes for her birthday because they are super easy to make AND I have been craving fall flavors lately. These cupcakes are not only easy/delicious/supercheap, but are really low in calories. 

AND you only need two ingredients! Inconceivable. 

Yes, that's right. Only two. Don't ask me how it works. It just does.

You need:

-a box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake (it's vegan)

-a can of pumpkin

First, dump the ingredients in a bowl and mix.

Blend until all the chunks are gone, than fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full.

Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes or until the fork comes out clean.

During this time you will make the frosting.

To make the cream cheese frosting, you need:

-8oz. (one container) of cream cheese (I use Tofutti  imitation cream cheese)

-about half a bag of powdered sugar

-pure vanilla extract to taste

-dash of salt

Begin by dumping 3/4 of the container of cream cheese into a bowl.

Stir until creamy and room temperature.

Add in powdered sugar about a cup at a time.

Stir until it turns into frosting.

Don't panic if it starts to look like this:

It will eventually turn into this:

It's easy to OD on powdered sugar, so if you loose the cream cheese flavor, 

just add a tiny bit of vanilla extract and a tinier bit of salt.

Finally, after the cupcakes have cooled, frost those little suckers

and you'll have about 18-24 of these:

Not pretty, I know. I didn't have time to decorate them. 

Look at this creepster bird we saw at the zoo:

His head is on backwards.