Finals are over...

So I've been a bit out of the blogging due to finals. With really no time to cook, I didn't have much to show you. However, I can happily say they're now over. I had my share of many sleepless nights and can now finally enjoy a small break.

I'm going to be going on a trip to Nebraska for about a week and a half. I'll be flying from California to Denver, CO and then driving to South Dakota and then to Nebraska. Hopefully, I will be able to take pictures of what I ate during my trip so I can update everyone when I get back.

Since I don't have any good food images, I'll update with a happy image of one of my finals that I spent hours and hours on.

I'm just kidding. That was me messing around when I should have been doing my projects....

Here's the real one.

This is a 3d model I did in 3D Studio Max and Photoshop CS2. This was for my 3d environment class and was built from a concept that was given to me. It is designed to go into games and was made with 4 texture maps.


For those of you who read this whole post, I'm sorry if this didn't make much sense. I'm walking in my sleep right now :)

Polenta

Polenta. A very interesting meal. I found some at the store and figured it would be a fun thing to try, never having made it before.

I start cooking by sauteing onions and such and I realized I didn't have an ingredient. So, logically, I asked my boyfriend to go to the store for me. On his way out the door, I asked him to take out the trash. Unfortunately for me, the trash was where the polenta cooking instructions were. So I gunned it. I have no idea if this was how it was suppose to taste, but it wasn't bad. It had a nice corn meal like texture and added a sweetness to the dish. Maybe next time, I wont throw away the directions. :)

Potato Curry and Cranberries

I made a potato curry with brown rice the other day. It was pretty good, but I feel that it would taste better with peas in it to give it a bit more flavor. I was also strangely craving cranberry sauce and had a can of it in my cabinet. It has to be one of the most unhealthy type of cranberry sauce, but I figured why not. So I had some :)

Sunday Morning French Toast!

Today, I wanted to make a good breakfast. I'm not normally a breakfast person and will just have a breakfast bar or piece of fruit. However, due to the massive amounts of stress during my final week (this week X_X), I felt I should relieve the stress by making some french toast.

This recipe is basically soy milk, flour, sugar, and cinnamon mixed together to make the french toast mixture. I actually think it came out better then the non-vegan french toast because it doesn't have the strong taste of eggs (obviously).

I had french toast with maple syrup and powdered sugar while my boyfriend, who couldn't wait for me to take the picture before he ate two pieces of it, had strawberry jam and powdered sugar on his.

Cookie, my landlady's goat, came over for a visit as well. We had to hold her back before she ate the toast herself :)

Shitake Tofu

I had a few things left in the fridge and decided to throw it all together to make dinner today. Shitake mushrooms with tofu and green onions. I made it with a lot of sauce to be able to pour it over the rice. I know I'm obsessed with Asian cuisine and stir fry-ish foods, but really, I can't help it!

I started listening to the Vegan Freak Podcast and find that it's packed with a bunch of helpful and informative information about veganism. I'm new to the whole podcast thing, and will have to listen to other vegan blogs and give you guys the get go :) I find they're always best to listen to when at the gym. Gives you fuel for working out!

Asian Noodles

Being part Japanese, I was heavily raised on tofu, noodles and vegetables. Without my grandma being able to cook now, and without my favorite childhood recipes; I am slowly trying to piece together and prepare these old dishes.

This dish was basically a stir fry with somen noodles instead of the rice and was more "soupy". The tofu was my trial of frozen tofu and it came out great. It completely gives it a different texture and taste. I'll have to have more frozen tofu adventures in the near future.

White Chili

My favorite soup when I was a kid was the amazing white chili. It was a clear/white base with great northern beans, chicken and lots of lime. I've not had this chili for years, and since going vegan I had pretty much shoved it out of my mind. It came to mind that I wanted to try and make it again, veganised. Here is my first shot, it didn't come out as well as I wanted it to, but it wasn't bad. Maybe after a couple more tries I'll get it just right!

Cupcakes, Kevin and the Did You Knows!

Over the weekend, I was at my friend Amy's house and we had a little bakefest. We made two types of cupcakes (unfortunately, I was only able to get one type of cupcake in picture because I destroyed my camera phone...but that's another story.) We made cupcakes from VCTOTW, the chocolate cherries and the Lime coconut. They were soo good! VCTOTW is seriously, one of my favorite books.

Here is a picture of the chocolate cupcakes and little Kevin eating his.

The only issue I have with making the cupcakes, is that the frosting seems to melt within five minuets of sitting out. I use Earth Balance so I am wondering if that is the reason. If anyone has any solution to this, PLEASE let me know :)

On another vegan food blog, Vegan Vice, she lists a series of "Did You Know" facts she got from a Native Foods flyer. I found it to be very helpful for quick facts about food and the effects it has on our planet. I've listed the list from her website below.

Pollution: The meat industry causes more water pollution in the United States than all other industries combined because animals raised for food produce 130 times more excrement than the entire human population does - 86,000 pounds per second. A typical pig factory farm generates a quantity of raw waste equal to that of a city of 50,000 people, but without the sewage system. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the runoff from factory farms pollutes our rivers and lakes more than all other industrial sources combined.

Land: Of all agricultural land in the United States, nearly 80 percent is used to raise animals for food. More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals. Twenty times more land is required to feed a meat-eater than to feed a pure vegetarian.

Water: Raising animals for food consumes nearly half the water used in the U.S. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. Also, the EPA reports that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement have polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.

Global Warming: Meat production causes global warming. The massive amount of animal feces produced in factory farms is the largest source of airborne methane in the U.S. According to the EPA, methane traps heat in the atmosphere more than 20 times more effectively than carbon dioxide does.


Energy: Raising animals for food requires more than one-third of all the raw materials and fossil fuels used in the U.S. Satisfying our appetite for flesh requires fuel to produce fertilizer for the crops that are fed to animals, oil to run the trucks that take them to slaughter, electricity to freeze their carcasses, and much more.

Animals: You can't be concerned about the environment without caring about our fellow inhabitants, the animals. They're made of flesh and blood, have complex social and psychological lives, and feel pain, just as humans do. More than 27 billion animals are killed by the U.S. meat industry each year, and they're killed in ways that would horrify any compassionate person.

"If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you can do."---- Sir Paul McCartney