Sin City

1. That's a damned good movie. (And I may be biased because of my love or Frank Miller/his contributions to Wolverine but I really think not.)
2. Sometimes "sin" is medicine.

My Cookbook Project is going incredibly well: I have made Ratatouille, pumpkin pie spice, baked apples, roasted potatoes, macaroons, and chocolate chip cookies, and figured out cake flour substitutions without Googling a single word. Tonight I have two more things planned, also from cookbooks.

"Um, did you say macaroons? ....What about chocolate chip cookies? I thought you were healthy."
I am. Health is mind and body.
I was reading a cookbook this morning and there was a recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I always take "best" recipes as a challenge. I have to try them and decide for myself. So I "sinned" and made me some chocolate chip cookies:
I actually haven't tried one (intuitive eater Kittie said: not hungry) but they smell and look gorgeous.

And some macaroons:
"Why macaroons?"
Because I am also working on "Operation don't go to the grocery store" because I want to clean out the fridge/freezer/pantry and I had an abundance of coconut. As a matter of fact the chocolate chips I used for the other cookies I was also trying to get rid of. (they were chunks, I don't like chunks. I wanted to open my bag of chocolate chips.)

Another thing I used up? A jar of almond butter! *gleams with pride*
Overnight oats were in order.
Nomnom.

For lunch I wanted breakfast and I wanted to use up some veggies and my pack of wraps. Breakfast burrito, anyone?
I sauteed up some onions and mushrooms:
Cooked down some diced tomato:
Cooked down some spinach in garlic:
And topped it off with two egg whites and string cheese:
yum.

I would also like to inform all of you of a few things:
A Larabar a day keeps the doctor away.
Ratatouille goes very well with quinoa.
Pumpkin Pie Spice is fun to make. Kittie is #1.

Rattata

Remember Rattata? When I was little called him Ratatata. (Okay, I still do)
Anyways, that'll make sense later. I have other loose ends to tie up.

What did I do with that giant measuring cup (would that be a measuring quart?..) full of berries?:
I made jam!
This is the first time I've ever made jam so...keep your fingers crossed!

It should pair well with these:
Um...yeah you think I have enough nut butters? I really want some Barney Butter but I have promised myself to finish three jars first....

Anyhow, back to Rattata, I made Ratatouille last night! This is such a delicious dish. It is sweet and fresh from the cooked down vegetables and just oh so so good. The fact that Onions and eggplant are two of my favorite things may have swung this love.

I topped it with some sauteed mushrooms and served it with french bread and a salad. Mmmm.
It is really quite simple to make.
What you need:
1 large onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 zucchini, sliced
1 eggplant, cubed
3 tomatoes, diced
1 tsp dried oregano
How to do it:
-Saute onion and bell pepper until crisp-tender
-Add garlic
-Add zucchini and eggplant. Let cook for 5 minutes
-Add tomatoes and oregano
-Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes (longer for soupier results)

Now that was simple, wasn't it?

It is so amazingly delicious. So good that I had to have it for lunch:
In a wrap. (Grandma's pickles on the side. Heaven.)

I'm still living up the blueberries!

Afternoon Tea:
Confession: By afternoon tea I'm usually on my second pot.. :/

Grandma's doesn't last forever

I suppose I've left you babies alone long enough. Time to blog of Grandma's and the return home!

Before we left, I had this ominous breakfast:
Why is it ominous? Because my lovely grandmother has a yard with a garden. In that garden are some flower beds. In those flower beds are huge, thriving blueberry bushes. And we picked, oh how we picked!
Now that's a lot of berries, you say. How do you prep them for storage? Well, lucky for you little brother wanted to play food blogger and recorded the process:
Roll, roll, roll.
He wanted to show you what we are rolling off:
And the final product:
Oh, did you think that was all the berries we picked? You are so wrong. Take that and multiply it by three nights.

I have some in my freezer:
Some in my crisper:
And some that had a destiny all their own:
(I added it up, I we were to buy this many blueberries at the store it would be over $150. Can you see why I refuse to buy those flavorless store bought ones?)

I must show you the wonderful things I ate at my wonderful grandmother's house:
Her giant blueberry muffins.
I love these, they have oatmeal and she uses yogurt instead of milk. They are so yummy and very good for you. (Don't you love her dishes?)
At Grandma's house, it's okay to eat white bread. ;) Especially if you top it with White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter and fresh picked blueberries!

And when you wake up and it feels like Christmas morning because you remember you are at your grandma's, it's time to splurge on pancakes...don't forget the blueberries:

And goodness gracious you must have her home made cornbread with her magical vegetable soup and homegrown cucumbers!
Top that off with your grandma's classic chocolate cake:
And when you get home, you better hope she packed some of her Christmas pickles in with your berries.

While I was there I had my nose in her personal (mostly handwritten) cookbooks and copied down 72 recipes. Uh...this is what 72 recipes (front and back) looks like on notebook paper:
Ouch.

So....with a refrigerator full of delicious blueberries, my day looked like this:
Breakfast:
Post-workout yogurt:
Lunch:
Afternoon tea:
What was dinner?
Tune in next time to find out. ;)

The Cookbook Project

Read about my cookbook project after the eats.
Breakfast was the same as yesterday:

-Oat bran (the last of it, damn.)
-1/2 frozen banana, mashed
-Vanilla
-Salt
-Cinnamon
Topped with:
-Lemon zest
-Berries
-Nutella
-Almond butter

I spent my morning and afternoon practicing my beading:
For lunch I reverted back to childhood with this plate:
I had a small baked potato and I put real cheese on it. I usually don't but I needed to sneak in protein and calories.
The carrots were delicious. They were microwave steamed with:
-Oregano
-Salt
-Pepper
-Agave

Applesauce that I ate out of obligation and did not enjoy but was easier to eat than anything else today:
For dinner I ate the rest of my vegan mac and cheese. I changed some things: I added mustard and corn starch.
Much better!
For dessert, yogurt and Nutella with iced raspberry green tea.

Alright, on to the "Cookbook Project."

All through my childhood my mother had our cookbook cabinet stuffed full of books. I don't think she used any of them....well, I did. I used them for baking. For cooking I either winged it or followed a family recipe.

When I went vegan in high school I was gifted two vegan cookbooks by a friend. I never used them. Seriously, cookbooks were not my thing. If I really needed something, I Googled it.

This is my issue. If I want a recipe, I Google it and pick one. My recipe book is in word, seriously, look:
You can bet those babies have sub folders. ;)
I usually use recipes from anonymous recipe sites. Sometimes there are no comments, sometimes there are. Basically, I just hope it works and most of the time it doesn't. Well, what did I do wrong? Nothing, this recipe isn't tested, this recipe isn't exact. Cookbooks are tested.

My problem with cookbooks: I'm very visual, many cook books don't have pictures of each recipe. I hate milling through the pages of text hoping to find something good.

Recently I have been perusing my copy of Veganomicon and have found several recipes I would like to try. I just ordered Vegan Lunch Box: Around the World. I also own Vegan Planet and plan on ordering Vegan Lunch Box and maybe The Kind Diet. Along with those I have three binders (one for baking, one for cooking, and one for tea parties) filled with recipes that I have printed/copied/and clipped.

For the next few months, when I want something I'm not going to Google it first (this is the project.) I am going to search through my books. Does this take more time? Yep. Does this yield better results? That is the hope. Either way, I'll be using them at least.

Here's a little bit of bloggie info:
You may have noticed that all my cookbooks are vegan and I take the time to do things like vegan mac and cheese but then I eat dairy, what's up with that?

1. I am not currently vegan.
2. I have been vegan.
The reason as to why I went back to vegetarianism can be found in the About the Blogger tab.

Why don't I eat much cheese or drink milk?
1. I hate milk. It is so gross. I drank it all the time before I went vegan and after nine months of not having cow's milk, I can't stomach it.
2. I don't like real, full fat cheeses generally. I don't like heated cheese because I hate cheese grease. I actually hate all grease/oil that is detectable in my foods. I hate the feeling it gives food.

Do I eat eggs?
Why yes I do. I like eggs. I hate liking eggs but I do. I eat just the whites quite often. My friend watched me eat a boiled egg once and said, "You didn't eat the yellow part....oh, that's the baby part--haha!"

Do I eat honey?
Funny story: When I was vegan, I didn't eat honey for the first six months, then I decided that "I hate bees" (Oh, I really do) so I would eat it if I wanted to.
Now, I don't eat a lot of honey because I make most of my foods and I despise the sticky mess that honey is.

Do I eat Agave nectar?
Yes I do, I much prefer the texture of it as opposed to honey.
BUT I have more of a moral issue with agave than I do with honey (oh the confusion.)
What is my moral issue? The Blue Agave plant is dying, people.

That's all for tonight, I'm going to be away for the long weekend (Grandma's!) But Grandma has no Internet so I'll be back Tuesday!