Bring it on 2011

Happy New Year to all of my fellow veg and nonveg bloggers alike....I hope you all enjoyed your evenings festivities.  I am currently writing from Western Illinois University where my boyfriend attends school....sadly, he does not get much of a break due to his basketball season :/ Our night was not to eventful....we watched ESPN until we decided to go to bed....he has a game today :]]] Go Leathernecks!! (even though I am, and always will be a true Commodore fan at heart....what can I say? Black and Gold runs through my veins). Needless to say I won't be doing my cooking or vegan dining out for the next few days, but I will be eating super healthy....I started 2011 with a run that I had planned on being 4 miles, but it's just to cold and windy here so 4 turned into 2.5. Once my hip starts screaming I'm pretty sure that means stop.  I know everyone has set their new years resolutions, which hopefully most of us will be able to attain. I myself, have created quite a few....but I have made sure that they are at least attainable. Here it goes:
1. Lose my weight gained from being off the few months I was for surgery.
2. Run my first half marathon...thankfully the surgery will hopefully allow me to do this seeing as how my plans to do so were ruined in 2010.
3. Make this my best year for bowling, for those who don't know I'm a NCAA collegiate athlete at Vanderbilt....my sport: bowling :]
4. Starting studying for the LSAT...now
5. Get a paid internship at a law firm this summer....hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do so.
6. Make some new friends :]
7. Write my book I've been planning on finishing...started...but definitely needs a lot of work.
8. Give back to the youth community...do some community outreach for youth bowlers and athletes alike.
9. Make some more vegan friends...at school, in Chicago, and in the blogosphere.
10. Get more active with my church this semester....with the surgery last semester I was lacking in my spiritual self, but I really need to get back to it...i sense the emptiness.
11. Keep making and keep achieving goals....cross a few things off my bucket list too :]
Hope you all are enjoying your first day of 2011....I know I will be relaxing and doing some reading until the game tonight.

-cold in Illinois.

quick black beans

My original plan tonight was to make something extravagent from one of my new cookbooks, but that was an EPIC fail. I was way to tired to make a huge meal tonight and it was already past my usually eating time of seven. So, I steamed up some asparagus and added some lemon juice, cut up another apple and added some almond butter (if you haven't noticed this is practically my favorite food right now), opened up a can of organic black beans--added some cumin and bay leaves--,and then cooked up some brown rice. It was actually very good and very filling for a quick, unplanned meal. 

I also got some great news from various vegan companies I contacted which you guys will be hearing about in the days to come. Also, if anyone has any advice to help me gain some followers that would be great...i've been doing my best but i seem to be failing in gaining popularity. I also created an Edgy Vedgy facebook page, so if you facebook, which I'm sure you do, please like my page....thanks in advance :] 

Well, i'm calling it a night blogfam. nighty-night! 

Amazing grass and workout

If you read my post from this morning you probably know I've been a bit down about getting back into shape from surgery, but let me tell ya, today's workout was AMAZING. I incorporated some new things into my workout and decided to follow a running plan instead of just winging it everyday at the gym. While I was catching up on my blogs this morning I was reading Kathy Eats Real Food, who I highly recommend following if don't. In her blog about running she has a half-marathon plan that she used so I decided to modify to my recovery and own plans for a marathon. My workout was ecstatic I'm still smiling from how happy I am...after my workout I decided to give Amazing Grass a try and it actually isn't to bad at all...it's a little rich though, maybe next time I'll add some extra rice milk.  I added the packet to my after workout smoothie of banana, rice milk, and some raw oats. I also had another apple with almond butter and some steamed carrots and green beans.

Now, it's nap time. :]

mmm Smoothies

So, it's day three of my adventure back to health and fitness and I can proudly say that I've been feeling great, sore, but great. Every morning I've made a fruit smoothie after my workout. This week I've usually just been using frozen bananas, strawberries, mangos, and pineapple with some coconut water. But today I was a little extra hungry so I had a piece of spelt toast with some almond butter, and an apple that didn't make it past the knife. I've been limiting my carb intake, but when I do enjoy them I make sure their whole grains or something like quinoa. I've also been eating a ton of steamed veggies and fruits. I'm pretty sure I've gone through 2 bags of Trader Joe's asparagus and 2 bags of fuji apples and it's only Wednesday.

On another note, the working out has been a little disappointing, which is to be expected I guess. Before surgery I was running nonstop for miles but now I'm having a hard time completing just 1.5 miles without needing to take a break due to all of the muscle loss in my legs. I've decided that this is definitely going to be an experience for the next few months. I'll be making something from one of my new cookbooks I got for Christmas tonight for dinner, so hopefully you'll be looking forward to another post today.

BTW i picked up a packet of the chocolate amazing grass that was recommended by livinlovinvegan when I went to Fruitful Yield the other day...I still have yet to try it because I'm out of hemp milk but I'm definitely looking forward to it as soon as i get to Whole Foods.

seeing as how my pictures won't load I'll have to add them later.


--exhausted gym rat.

Down to Business

So, seeing as how I can't sleep and I was planning on doing this blog in the morning I decided I might as well just do it now.  Now that I'm officially going to be 10 weeks out of surgery this coming Tuesday and I've started hitting the gym a bit more and slowly getting back into bowling I've decided I might as well start my training and super healthy eating a few weeks early.  Before I found out I would be forced to have injury related hip surgery I was training for a half marathon and eating a raw vegan diet. Sadly, I have found it extremly hard to eat raw while at school, so I must opt for eating a very healthy plant filled vegan diet while at school. Tomorrow marks my first official day of training for the marathon and getting back into full athlete shape.  I CAN'T WAIT. I've missed running, boxing, and lifting so much.  So, for my last not so healthy meal for awhile I decided to feast on a large piece of homemade vegan pumpkin pie that I made for Christmas as well as some steamed asparagus, a mixture of tangerines, apples, and a banana alongside Isa's Chickpea cutlets...which I recently saw over at livinlovinvegan.

I'll definitely be keeping you updated on my delicious healthy food i'll be making in the days to come as well as some new products I'll be testing in honor of my training.

VegWeb Chocolate Cake

So, this morning I woke up and felt the need to bake chocolate cake, don't ask why, I just had this very strong inclination too.  So, after parousing the vegan recipe websites I came across a few on VegWeb that had some good reviews...i decided to pick The Ultimate PMS Chocolate Cake...mainly because it was quick and easy and I was on a time constraint to get to running. Anyways....after taking it out of the oven and testing it sans frosting I wasn't very impressed.  This cake is very dense, not fluffy, and it isn't sweet enough for my taste buds, I personally wouldn't recommend making it.

On another note,  I made some great Pumpkin Date muffins yesterday. These, I highly recommend making. There not to unhealthy and the recipe is very simple.

Pumpkin Date Muffins
2 c dates, chopped
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c corn meal
3/4 c granulate sugar (i substituted agave, you can also use brown rice syrup)
1 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground cloves
1 c canned pumpkin puree
5 T apple sauce
2 t grated orange zest (i leave this out occassionally)
3 T. water

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly coat muffin pans with vegetable oil spray.
2. In bowl mix dry ingredients then add dates.
3. In separate bowl mix wet ingredients. Then add to the dry using the muffin method to combine.
4. Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean. I've found it usually takes between 10-15 minutes depending on the type of oven.

Hopefully you all enjoy this recipe and are enjoying your holiday festivities.

Cold in Chicago

Broccoli and Such

Tonight I made my first semi-homemade meal since being home...and let me tell ya it was AMAZING! I made some baked broccoli alongside a new item I've never seen before at whole foods...the broccoli was amazing (maybe I'm just biased against broccoli seeing as how it is my favorite veggie; also, there are so many different way's to make broccoli enjoyable).  Alongside the broccoli I enjoyed the Vegan Cranberry Quinoa Loaf from Whole Foods. This product tastes just like the Tofurky Celebration roast, but a little sweeter.  I highly reccomend picking it up...seeing as how I'll be the only vegan attending our Thanksgiving feast of 50+ I decided to just pick up half a loaf on Wednesday instead of buying a whole Tofurky.  It was real simple to prepare it...it comes cold so I just threw it in the oven for a few minutes to warm it up.  

I also have some pumpkin muffins currently baking, which I'm more than excited to enjoy shortly. I'm making some pumpkin cookies tonight so I just picked up the pumpkin bread premade mix from Trader Joe's this afternoon and instead of adding oil and eggs I substituted in 1 cup of unsweetened apple sauce.  I'll definitely be posting some pics tomorrow...until then I hope you all are getting excited about all of the vegan Thanksgiving food posts...i know I am.