Thanksgiving is such a nice holiday to see family and spend time with them but it is also a very long holiday. If you include black Friday as part of that. I spend most of my Friday recovering from the long trip to my family's house near Huntsville , Texas. It was a great day , however I didn't capture my plate of food that I bought with me.
I bought butternut squash dusted with cinnamon , green beans, brussels sprouts and rosemary rolls which was all from whole foods; and of course vegan pumpkin pie.I think I have found my new lover for pumpkin pie, because sadly the pumpkin pie gelato now has milk in it. I was sad to hear that but oh well , whole foods makes a killer pumpkin pie.
Needless to say my family was slightly interested in how I eat , except for one family member whom was general interested at the same time. I kept my cool with all the questions about why I was vegan and what I eat. I mean I haven't seen my family in 4 years so I could understand, because the last time they saw me I was vegetarian.
Enough about me rambling about Thanksgiving and stuff. Some exciting news, I am going to be reviewing Larabar and Amy's courteous of both of theses companies. I should be posting a review of Amy's frozen items sometime this upcoming week. Along with those reviews I will be posting a review of the pumpkin pie above that I had for Thanksgiving, plus two restaurant reviews from the Houston area.
Does anyone know how to transfer pictures from iPhone to computer to use on a blog?
Please leave me a comment below if you know anything on how to do that.
Happy Tofurky Day to all. I will be on hiatus until the holiday is over which means I'll be back on Friday. If I get free time before Tofurky Day then I will post.
Have a good Tofurky Day!!!
I will leave you with a wonderful picture.
Wonderful Picture of Snow from Oregon taken by R.Bork
Today while I was out with my family, we went grocery shopping and we're going to pick up a pancake mix; for a breakfast this week. My family stated that I would have to eat eggs in order for them to make the pancakes because that is the only way you can make pancakes. Right then at the exact moment I bit down my tongue knowing that it was one of those moments in life that test you about your beliefs and way of life.
I decide that this was not the argument that would be worth the hard time and mental thinking to get my point across. However I guess that it was one of those days that I had to get my point across about vegans being able to eat the same things as meat eaters. This wasn't my first run in with this argument I have avoid it once before , because I don't like to push my thoughts on to other about my beliefs nor prove myself either.
This argument started about with how I like baking, and my family chimed in will you can't bake without eggs. Oh boy that was when I was like man the ship for all weapons it's time to go to war. I was locked and load .
See I used my knowledge to make sure that I could backup my argument , but about the baking apart that was the beginning. The argument ended today in the store over the pancake mix, after I stood their looking at my family while they were shopping for pancake mix. I just said look I am not going to argue about this anymore, if you don't believe then don't but their are facts backup me showing that it is possible for vegan's to make pancake mix with ANY eggs,honey, or milk.
I have a feeling that this argument may come back, but what I really learned is that if you believe in something . Sometime it is important to argue your point and sometime it is not. Which leads me to the title of this post when not to argue with a meat eater. I choose it simply because I live in the land of meat and potatoes ; I have to learn when to choose my battles.
Have you ever had an experience like this or anything similar?
Warning this post is about me rambling about the occupy movement and my thoughts.!!
My thoughts on Occupy movement, is very open to what it is about. I would have to say I would completely agree with what the movements presence is about. However I know lots of people that don't like the movement. I usually don't believe in sharing my thoughts on politics but however this is one of those things that I will talk about.
When I lived in central Oregon which is in the middle of the state, I went to a tea party movement. I was lucky enough to get pictures of the whole movement that day and everyone was willing to allow me to take the pictures. I think I was allowed to capture the whole thing digital because I am young person in my twenties and I am not happy with how the government has gotten.
A picture from Tea Party in Bend,Oregon 2009
In fact I am pissed off about how the government is now , especially since I didn't get a chance to go to college right after high school. Simple because my family could not afford the cost of college in 2007 and I know since then it has gone up. Instant of college I went to right into the workforce and worked for a anonymous fortune 500 company for four years in the hopes that I would be able to afford college.
However I still couldn't afford college nor afford to change jobs because during the time I was working the government and economy got ruined. I mean living in Oregon which has one of the highest unemployment rates shows really how bad the government is f**k'd up. The fact that they stated it was getting better ,but it hasn't they bailed out the banks and emptied the 99%'s wallet at the expense of bailing out the banks.
Most people would say that it's not true, try living in Oregon where it is true. After the economy got ruined and the banks were bailed out income tax got higher. Along with everything else , at first I didn't believe this and I though I was imaging it all. I would look over my pay checks and notice that almost 2/5's of my paycheck was going to the government, I was paying for what the government did.
I still feel that the government should own up to what has happen instant of avoiding and abusing the people over the rights that the government has to fix the situation. Every person has the right to peaceful protest this movement but however the government feels that we should be stopped and silenced. That we the 99% have no say in what happens in this democratic government , except for what options are given to us. Which are limited and few.
Everyday I listen and read about what is going on in the movement all over america. What I hear is that Occupy is making good steps in its movement but then I here about. The brutal things that the police are doing so many people have been injured , why is it that for protesting something that your passion about. Gets you beaten up by the police which are to protect us, but yet they do what the government tells them to do.
For now I will leave this subject be at what I have typed , I may come back at a later dated in time and post more things about this issue. What I wrote was something that I need to get off my chest and need to be written down before I forgot.
Please feel free to leave comments about how you feel about Occupy movement.
I love sandwich's of all types and I love most sandwich shops too. However my favorite shop since I got to Texas is Which Witch, personal this is the best sandwich shop hands down. The location I go to ; the employees are so friendly and nice.
It's nice to go Which Witch because of the employee's and of course the sandwiches; enough of me rambling. I got a Tomato & Avocado sandwich from them tonight, it was my first real meal since I got sick.
Which Witch is not vegan shop they make all types of sandwiches but however they have a special set of sandwiches that are vegetarian.
Note all the vegetarian sandwiches can be made vegan if you don't select anything animal related. Above picture shows how you order your sandwich .
You select which type you want , then you select what type of bread. It goes on how much you can customize your sandwich to the way you want.
As you can see I ordered a Tomato & Avocado on wheat toasted with salsa, red onions, lettuce, cucumbers,black olives, mushrooms,oregano, pepper and of course garlic.
I took a picture of the sandwich for you guys before I bit into it, Which Witch is my favorite go to sandwich place but they are higher than Subway.
What's your favorite go to sandwich shop? Have you ever been to Which Witch?
I know that the title isn't the best but hey what can you say when it's the first thing that comes to mind. I recently posted that I was out sick, and I was. It felt like I was a zombie just going through the motions of living but not being able to enjoy it.
I had caught a stomach virus that was going around, in fact it was in the news. They went over on how to avoid it and prevent it from happening in your family. Which I think in my opinion they posted this a little too late, I lost about 30 dollar worth of groceries because they went bad by me being sick.
It's been almost a week and I am now starting to eat real food besides the B.R.A.T diet. Which most of us would know isn't that fun, it's very limited. I am glad to be able to eat miso soup and a salad with ginger dressing from Sushi Hana , it's now my favorite meal.
It feels nice to be blogging again, but I know that this isn't a review of anything vegan nor vegan related. However while I was sick I got a couple cookbooks on one of the days I was feeling better, so I'll show those soon.
Right now I am still not interested in food because I am not completely better,once I am my posts will be my regular schedule one's and even more home cooked food. I decided that's the only way to make sure that I don't get sick like this again.
Any suggestion's for food that is flavorful but will work with a stomach virus?
I will not be posting for a little while , I am very sick right now. I got some type of flu, so it may be a couple days before I am back with posting on time. Just wanted to give a heads up and let you'll know that I haven't stopped my blogging.
My best stash of Amy's products , this was before I left Oregon. Can you tell that I like Amy's soups a little to much. What's your favorite Amy's product?
I am a sucker for purple things because it's my favorite color in the whole world. I have most things purple, but I didn't think that would be part of my lotion collection that I have. I recently got Victoria Sercet Lotion and a few other things from them. My favorite smell is love spell , which happens to be purple( I think that's funny).
I would have to say that this stuff smells great and I love it. I love Victoria Sercet customer service , they helped me alot. When I got the box from UPS the body spray was missing from the box, I know its in the picture. I called them told them what happen , and the rep ordered me a new one with three day shipping because of what happen at no charge.
What I got was the shimmer lotion , hand lotion , two body butter's and a body spray for $ 30.00 dollars. Which they have that deal going on with the whole collection right now , however the simmer spray and brush are not included. Victoria Secret lotions and body spray are cruelty free which I love that and they are sulfa free expect the shower stuff that has sulfa in it.
*Dis closer: Complete review was of my own opinions and I was not paid to review this product.
My new favorite thing to get besides Luna & Larry's Coconut Ice Cream, is Pumpkin Pie gelato. I was like omg! they have something that tastes just like pumpkin pie, I haven't had a pumpkin pie since I went vegan. The area I was living in was a really small town, so when I saw this I was like wow.
I had the Phoenicia cafe make sure for me that it had nothing from animals in it , and they stated that it's dairy free, egg free and honey free. So I picked out Pumpkin Pie and my mom picked out pistachio with orange blossom. So inside the container half was pistachio and half was pumpkin pie which made it hard to spoon out the pumpkin pie to avoid pistachio part.
I was finally able to just get the pumpkin pie part out , and it was just like eating pumpkin pie.Here's a picture of it
I was so excited when I found vegan & gluten free frozen dinner in the frozen section at H*E*B. Moo Moo's had a few frozen dinner options at the store , but I went with this one.
Simply because I love spicy things and I figured it would be spicy because of the Poblano. I would have to say this frozen dinner was not cheap it was about almost $7.00 after tax.
Nutritional Information for the Poblano Patties
Based on the nutritional information and it being poblano patties, I got the frozen dinner. I waited to try it for a couple days, so I finally did try it. I wasn't that happy with the frozen dinner, first of all the plastic broke while microwaving the food. Which mad me really upset ,because half the sauce that was in the dish was on my microwave.
What came out of the dish on the side was the roasted corn salsa that was supposed to be part of the poblano chickpea patties. The patties were very mushy, and lacked a little flavor their was no real spice. It seemed like the poblano was lack of from the patties, if their was a little more poblano that would have balanced out the mushy part of the patties. If they were more firm that would have been excellent, but they weren't.
I had to add in a little more salsa my self to make the patties better, because they are mushy. The mushy thing was the part that I didn't like at all. Overall the flavor was okay , the product was good and the plastic of the product is okay. I would not buy this again simply because the flavor was off and wasn't what I was expecting.
* Dis closer: All reviews are of my own and I was not paid to review this product.
I was very worried about buying from one of the sale websites , the one's that have great deals. I decide to give one a try which is 1dayasale.com, and they had this wonderful cat necklace. I was for $7.99 which normally it's $112.00. First thing that came to mind was that it might be of poor quality, oh boy was I wrong. This necklace is of really good quality plus it only cost 13.98 with shipping.
I just love this necklace which is my new favorite, I just had to share. I was not paid to review the website all opinions are my own.
I love love these they are the best , just so wonderful and good. The package may look a little empty its because by the time I got to take a picture of it. My family and I had eaten most of the Macaroons, they were just that good. What really drew me into trying some of the Hail Merry Products was that it is raw,vegan and gluten free. I always try to get raw desserts instant of the one's that have refined sugars and Hail Merry Macaroons don't have refined sugars.
Nutritional Information on the Macaroons.
Hail Merry Macaroons are something I will being getting in the future again, the macaroons are so so amazing. They have just the right amount of chocolate in them, the chocolate macaroons almost don't seem like they have coconut in them.
One of the Chocolate macaroons.
I will be trying more of Hail Merry products in the future, the macaroons won me over. I got these in Houston on Kirby at the Whole Foods, and they have alot of Hail Merry products. Note you can find the Hail Merry products past the produce section over the yogurt and refrigeration section of the store.
Inside of Hail Merry Macaroon.
This review was all my own opinion and I was not paid to do this review. If you have had Hail Merry products tell me your favorite is.
When I moved to Texas, I was in a rude awaking because this is the land of meat and potatoes. I got kinda of worried that I wouldn't be able to find a decent pizza place that I could eat at besides Domino's. I'll save my thoughts on Domino's for another day, however I did find a pizza place thanks to my wonderful mom.
Russo's New York Pizzeria was the place that my mom recommend to me , I was worried that they used eggs. Will I emailed the company directly and asked if they used eggs in the pizza dough. I got a very quick reply within 2 hours stating no they do not use eggs in the dough and they are happy to work with people whom do not eat dairy nor meat.
Front of the pizza box
With knowing that I ordered a pizza from the website , I got Hearty Healthy Veggie. It includes:
Fresh spinach, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, onions, basil, mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, garlic sauce. The pricing of the pizza ranges from 14.95-20.95 before tax, but it is worth it.
Sorry I digged in as soon as the pizza was delivered, and my mom too. Its so good , the flavors of the pizza are so light. Its most or less like a very good pizza sandwich since you have to fold the pizza to eat to prevent the toppings from following off. I would get this pizza again , simply due to its just so good.
A close up
This pizza was better than a pizza with cheese , that's what my mom said and she is omi. So that surprised me alot and showed that pizza without cheese is pretty damn good. Tell me what your favorite pizza place is? Mines Russo's New York Pizzeria
I am a big fan of Hello Kitty and I love that it has been everywhere. I mean its on tee shirts to clothing all the way to makeup. She is everywhere , I am excited because I love Hello Kitty not because its pink., but because she is so so cute.
I have been more excited than every since Hello Kitty products are everywhere . I even have two tee's from Hello Kitty, one from Hot topic and the other from Old Navy. On top of that I got something yesterday to add to my collection and it was at a good deal. I got Hello Kitty boots like house boots they are so cute, normal 30.00 dollars ..... I got them for 10.00 dollars from Ross.
If you like Hello Kitty, tell me your favorite thing that you own?
I recently had a chance just to go grocery shopping with my boyfriend and me instant of me and my mom. When I shop with my mom I don't really get that much time to look for things I like to get. I got quiet a few things that I was surprised about from Kroger and Super Target which are down the street from me.
Super Target was the first place I went to get some food, at first I was thinking I am not going to be able to find anything. As I started from frozen food section to dry foods my hope got better and I found quiet a few interesting products. From Annie's to Guacamole to anything else, I lost the receipt so I am just going to show the pictures I took of what I got.
Annie's from Super Target, I am so excited.
Organic Fruit Leather Super Target brand.
From Super Target Pirate's Booty Veggie, YAY!
After Super Target I went to the Kroger that was within walking distance and I really got a haul on Lara bars. I was excited about how many flavors they had , it was like I was back in Oregon. I also lost the receipt to Kroger so I'll show you pictures of what I got.
Larabar stash from Kroger.
More of Larabar stash from Kroger
True North is from Super Target and Back to Nature Granola to Go from Kroger
Two are from Super Target and one from Kroger.
These looked yummy , they were from Kroger.
I know thats not much food but I had alot of food at home. I never really buy snacking food, but with how I get busy and forget to eat. These products I got will make sure that I eat something when I am in hurry. I paid for this all myself and I was not paid to review these grocery stores.
Enough of all that tell me what your favorite thing to get at Super Target is? Mine is getting the Pirates Booty Veggie.
The other day I was in the car with my mom and we're listening to NPR on Saturday to be exact. One of the subject's that was on at the time was about this decades icon and what it was. I was very interested in hearing what it was, so I listened to find that Zombies were this generations icon.
I started to think "What?", but then I realized yes that is very true. Since I could remeber as a child that zombies was always a sub culture,but as I got older zombies became more common. They were every where from tv to books, including your daily life. I did a little research and found lists upon lists of zombie films and information.
After a little thinking and research I realized that what NPR said was completly true. I have always been following the Resident Evil series along with anything horror related. Infact I have seen every Resident Evil movies that has came out in the past few years.
With doing all this research I came across this clip about the upcoming Resident Evil : Retribution coming out in September 14th, 2012. So mark your calender Resident Evil fans! Tell me what you think about what NPR said, comment below.
I have been looking for a laptop for when I start school , but i am still not sure about what degree I am going for. Which has been part of the problem when looking for a laptop or mac book , simply because I do not know what I am going to be doing.
With knowing that I am not sure about what degree I am going to do , I have looked and looked over laptops and mac books. And now I have to selected down to three different mac books and laptops that I may wanted to get.
I was thinking about the decade that I was born in the 80s to young to remember , I was a baby in those days. What I do remember is that their were a lot of horror / scifi movies during that time that come out. Recently The Thing was released in the theatres again, I am not sure if it's a remake or prequel.
I saw the movie , I thought it was great movie it was different then what I was imaging when this movie come to mind. It is definitely a must see if you are the type of person that likes horror movies. Afterwards in the evening I looked up on netflix the original version and add it to the quene , I haven't watched it yet.
I usually a person who doesn't like fresh juiced beets or anything like that , but I have changed my opinion about beets. I recently got a chance to go to Central Market in Houston , Texas. Omg! I love this grocery store its what a store should be.
When you first walk into the store you are in the produce section, its big. Its my favorite produce section I have seen to this date. In this same area they juice the veggies and fruit that they sell. Their were quiet a few options I got two of the juices: ABC (apple ,beet , carrot) Juice and Carrot Orange Juice.
The flavor of the Carrot Orange was very very well balanced I would have to say. The other juice ABC which I didn't take a picture of was different but won me over on liking beets.
I recently went to a H*E*B which is a grocery store here in the Houston , Texas area. While I was in the store my mom told me about a tofu fried rice that was completely vegan and it was in the store we're at. She told that she meet the people who own or make the products , and that the food was to died for.
I am not a person who likes tofu very much but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try the fried rice. So I got the rice it was like around $5.00 or so , can't remember but what I do remember when picking up the rice is that they made egg rolls that were completely vegan. Now those were very pricey in my opinion it was like $6.97 for a box that had maybe 6-9 egg rolls in them , they looked yummy.
This is what it looks like right after microwaving it.
So I bought the tofu fried rice from Banyan Foods , which to be honest someone who doesn't like tofu. I actually liked it which surprised me and my mom.This is a very simple tofu fried rice that is very good the box has two servings inside of it and nutrition was pretty good. It is very easy to make the fired rice they give you two ways to make it. I made it by microwaving it , I was hungry.
However I did noticed that it had a slight lack of favor , I add in Bragg's Liquid Amino's to it with some pepper and Toasted Seamese Oil. Which add these things it made it taste better. Overall I would have to say that the Tofu Fried Rice is pretty good in my book.
Well after a couple months of self pity and loathe , I found that after all the research I did. That I wasn't happy where I was nor the job that I was doing. So I made a huge change.... I moved back to Houston, Texas. I mean its a big change , I am in the land of meat and potatoes and this is hard to adjust to.
So from now on going forward this blog will be changing a little bit since I have moved into my family's house and will be making din dins with them instant of just for two people. But the main thing I am going to show here that it is possible to be vegan in Houston.
Later this week I am going to do a review of Russo's New York Pizzeria or Mission Burrito new places that I found were yummy.
