Kitchen Sin Carne's reincarnation

Hello people of the blogging world :)

Since finding my camera in my couch cushion, I thought it was neccecary to post all the EXTREMELY dated food pics and other stuff...So I'll just let you sit back and look at some random pictures from like, August.

Above was a picture from thanksgiving with the family! I had a great vegan one, with sweet potato lentil stew, steamed carrots and brussel sprouts, wild rice with hazlenuts and cranberries, cranberry sauce, and salad. My tummy was very happy :) But unfortunatley, I had not found my camera yet so I didn't get any pictures...

And yes, I got a haircut.

So enjoy these pictures!

Apple Pie Crumb Cake muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance...SO GOOD.

Homemade soft pretzels. They weren't perfect, but they were alright, just a little too chewy.

Homemade seitan for....

Delicious vegan chili!! NOMNOMNOM

I'll have more to come soon, as I just got my very first bento box and I may just become a bit of a bento blogger...we'll see...

-O

Today is just NOT my day.

Good evenin' bloggees. Lifes been good today, pretty mellow.
Wait just a second.

Last night, at 1:48 AM exactly, I shot out of bed (not literaly) with hopes that it was morning. My dream had woken me up, it was quite insane. I was on some island with my friend Daphne and it was my birthday- I had 'one wish' that I could ask this Taoist looking dude with a long beard on some trail in the middle of no where. I looked at Daphne and asked "can I ask for John Mayer?" And she said no. So I asked for No Doubt (LOVE THEM) and then they came and somehow I got a record deal...
But theres more. Then I'm in my house, in the hallway, and theres some random ghost just standing there, almost halographic. I had lost my voice, (?) and tried to scream 'mom' but she just looked at me and smiled, and nodded her head. Pretty much summed up my life right there in that dream. Music, horror movies, john mayer, and my crazy awesome family.
Then all of a sudden I wrote this down on my phone at 1:48 AM, steaming hot (but it was cold last night!) and proceeded to fall back asleep, dreamless. My mind never shuts up.

This morning, as I brought my mug of coffee to my room , plus my beautiful plate of a freshly cut honeycrisp apple, I sat down at my computer. After taking MAYBE a sip of coffee and a bite of apple, the entire mug of coffee spilled onto my beautiful apple, thank you card, and leggings (which I was wearing...) Today just isn't my day. Oh and not to mention a bad hair day-ish. But I bumped up my math grade from a B- to an A-! Yay for that!!

For the part you all really came for (I'm guessing? Maybe? No? Ok.)


A very yummy snack of homemade simple spicy garlic hummus with some raw veggies. Perfect :D

My precious kitty Bourbon! Such an in-the-moment shot.

My lady gaga wig from last year! I love photography. Okay, I'm going to go for a quick run now and then proceed to do homework!

Question of the day:

What is the strangest dream you have ever had?

:)

The Kind diet invades my plate once again

Recent eats:



Pressed salad from The Kind Diet, brown rice with hummus and sesame seeds. Yummy dinner!

Heres the recipe for the pressed salad:

5-6 leaves napa cabbage

3 red radishes, thinly sliced (I didnt have any so I added some red onion instead)

3 whole scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced on the diagonal

1 orange or apple, thinly sliced and peeled

1 1/2 tbsp umeboshi vinegar

1 tbsp rice vinegar or balsamic

1 tbsp sunflower seeds

Comine all the veggies and fruit in a mixing bowl. Add the vinegar and massage the vegetables with your bare hands until they begin to wilt and release some of the liquid. This may take a few minutes. The massaged veggies should feel very wet by the end. Form into a mound and place a plate on top of the vegetables, and put something heavy like a kettle filled with water or a juice jug on the plate to weigh the salad down. Press for 20-30 minutes. Drain off the excess liquid, give the salad a good squeeze with your hands. If it tastes too salty, rinse it under cold water, then squeeze again. Add the seeds and toss, then serve. Yum!

My dad asked me to pack his lunch today, so I made him 2 mini burritos with 2 mini ezekiel tortillas, leftover refried beans and brown rice, some pressed salad, and a little tahini dressing. This was technically another recipe from the kind diet, the Clean mean burritos. I didn't have tofu to make the tofu sour cream, but I think these still count. Hope he likes it!! I also packed some carrot sticks, 2 small rice krispy treats, and a few almonds.

I am planning on making some soup with the black eyed peas I soaked and cooked yesterday, maybe just with onions, carrots, and a miso base? I dont know its getting to be soup weather, in my opinion :D

Talk to you guys later!

Nice to see you again, blog.

Hi guys! Camp was so fun...if there are any readers from cabin 13 then this is a shout out to you! I had such a good time hanging out and working hard to put on a great concert on sunday, even though 7 1/2 hours of singing a day was hard work. I think choir is going to be really good this year.

I love them! I'm on the far left on the bottom.
Shell on the beach!

For the food sitch: I brought these snacks, and finished everything except one lara bar and 2 rice milks. The delicious rice crisp bars were enjoyed by people in my cabin, as well as being eaten by myself:)

The food at the camp was...*to put it nicely* not the highest rated by campers...The great thing was that there was a salad bar available at lunch and dinner, loaded with lettuce, assorted veggies, hummus, garbanzos, kidney beans, TOFU!, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and plently of dressing options. They also had peanut butter, and I liked to mix a little of that with soy sauce to make a dipping sauce for my tofu. I was very happy and really only ate that for lunch and dinner-I changed it up between the options, and I didn't think the food was ALL that bad :D

On sunday, my parents came up to see the concert. They took me out to dinner (how nice) at a place about 25 minutes from the camp, and it was lovely! I got brown rice with sauteed seasonal vegetables (zucchini) with hummus, and a small side salad with a yummy dressing. The portions were really small, but everything was so fantastic. There was also this cute loaf of bread which I sampled.

Of course we couldn't just leave it.

I arrived home today and relaxed a bit, had some rice (I was seriousley craving whole grains since I had nada at camp) and caught up on blog posts.

My dad and I went shopping at a really cool, new asian market right near our house. I loaded up on napa cabbage, daikon, hijiki, kombu seaweed, a large bag of brown rice, barley, black eyed peas, rice syrup, mirin cooking wine, miso paste, umeboshi plums, carrots, celery, black sesame seeds, and my dad got a crunchy rice snack (which had wasabi so I didnt eat it) and maybe one or two other things, not really sure :D

We also stopped by Hillers to get sunflower seeds, collard greens, a bag of cereal, and my dad got granola, and a couple other things. I went to bed bath and beyond to get icing decorator tips and bags, and muffin cups. YAY!

I cooked a lot this evening, made gomashio, toasted seeds, and prepared a delicious dinner for myself.

Brown rice with a little gomashio, some seeds, chopped daikon, and scallion. Steamed collards and napa cabbage drizzled in sesame oil and seeds, and a small cup of miso soup with some daikon. So healing :D
I think I made enough brown rice for a week, or more! Yum. Its so delicious and healthy.

I have some fun food posts coming up soon after the weekend or so, but before then I'm not sure...I'll probably not be able to contain myself and bake something. So talk to you later blog!

Thank you for reading (:

Away to camp...again!!

Yes, I'm leaving tomorrow to go to a choir camp for 1 week up north. Our schedule is waking up at 6, doing calesthetics, breakfast, 4 hour rehearsal, lunch, then break. Oh then more rehersals :D

What have I gotten myself into.

Anyways, why not I talk about food to ease the pain of that regimine?

Some snacks I'm bringing to camp-homemade instant oatmeal, peanut butter cookie lara bar, crispy rice treats, (this version with almond butter and raisins! Yum!)

New obsession: tamari roasted sunflower seeds. Courtsey of The Kind Diet.

For lunch today, I enjoyed a mini ezekiel tortilla with smashed black beans, 1 clove garlic, gomashio, soy sauce, and a little sprinkle of sunflower seeds. Plus arugula and 1 leaf of basil.
A little salad with arugula, carrots, cherry tomato, lime juice, and a tiny dollop of tahini dressing.

mmm....

I *think* I can bring my phone to camp, (not sure if I will...) but I'll be off blogging for a week. See you guys after then...thanks for reading :D

Rain, rain...

PRETTY PLEASE STAY!

I love rain. It's weird, some days I would rather have a tretcherous downpour than a nice, sunny day. Well, I'd say 75% of the time. I don't know why! It just gets in the way of running and biking, I guess. I love rain.

Anywayzz....

Yesterday was Bourby's (my cat) birthday!! He is now 7 in cat years, which means he's 44 in human years! AAH!! We gave him some cat treats, temptations, on a plate with a candle in the middle. We sang happy birthday, he got scared of the candle, ran away, then walked around the kitchen and ate some of his treats. You know cats...

I painted my nails green with a little sparkly dotAte a large bowl of cereal

Corn puffs, puffins, yellow delicious apple, blackberries, blueberry optimum cereal, a few raw oats, flax, cinnamon, almond milk. YUM!


Love these things. Edible air? Well...

This morning, I headed off to whole foods. On my bike? NO! Flat tire! That hasn't happened in forever. So I walked. I got ingredients to make macadamia blondies with caramel maple topping from vegan with a vengeance. They are for a wedding shower tomorrow, they requested that I make a dessert. YAY! I signed up.

Also, I was looking for a cracker recipe, and instead found a granola recipe in a random cookbook on our shelf. I made it! Who it's for, thats a surprise! But I bought ingredients for that too. When I got home I started on Mr. Granola, and made the blondies in the midst of that. I say when you bake, really take advantage of the opportunity.

Blondie batter!Not really.

Caramel maple macadamia topping.

Out of the oven

Overflowing caramel topping!
MM.

The recipe is here:

Blondies

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 oz firm silken tofu

1/4 cup non dairy milk

1/3 cup canola oil

2 cups sugar

2 tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup raw macadamias, partially chopped and partially ground (If you pulse them in a food processor for about 30 pulses, this is achieved.)

Topping

1/4 cup earth balance butter

2 tbsp brown sugar or turbinado sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 cup raw macadamias, coarsely chopped

Dough:

In a large bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

In a blender, whiz the tofu with the nondairy milk until smooth. Add the oil, sugar, and vanilla, blend again. Pour the tofu mixture into the flour mixture and use a firm wooden spoon to combine the dough. Fold in the macadamias. The batter will be thick and have a cookie dough consistency. Spread in the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes, meanwhile prepare the topping.

Topping:

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the margarine, sugar, and maple syrup, heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase t he heat and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Stir in the nuts, remove from heat.

Remove the blondies from the oven when they are ready, and pour the topping over them, return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes more.

Let cool completely before cutting, the topping should be like a hardened caramel (mine wasnt! Just ooey gooey goodness) consistency. I cut mine into very small cubes, because I'm serving them at a party. But 16 squares is ideal.

The granola! Yummy!

This recipe came from Great Good Food by Julee Rosso. Okay...just a big red cookbook I flipped-eed through. I changed it a tiny bit, by the wayy..

Vanilla Granola

2 cups rolled oats

1/3 cup apple juice

2 tbsp melted earth balance

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 cup unsweetened flake coconut

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup slivered almonds

3/4 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 300'F. In a large bowl, mix the first 5 ingredients together, toss well. Spread the granola on a greased baking pan and bake for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the coconut, vanilla, and nuts and bake for another 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir in the raisins, and pop back in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Let cool completely, so you can let it clump up a bit. Yum!

Even Paula Deen could be vegan, as long as there is you, Earth balance.

NIGHT!!