Poppy takes a wife!

Last week was a whirlwind of travel and activity for me. I've become very housebound, basically leaving for a couple of hours at a time to teach class and that's about it.  I spent more time out of the house the last half of last week than I have for...I don't even know when.

Thursday I took Sage the kitty for a home visit in South Elgin, IL.  It went well, so she stayed there in her new home with a loving human family, dogs, and a cat friend.  I've had a few updates from her new mom, and she seems to be happy and adjusting well.  She's eating, snuggling in laps, and finding favorite spots to nap in.  I'm still pretty emotional about leaving her and still cry quite often when I walk by her favorite spot, but I'm glad she found a safe, loving home where she won't have to go outside again and only has to share her space and laps with one other cat.

Immediately after returning to town from the Elgin trip, I had to head to Madison for a  board meeting.  My car antenna broke off on the beltline, so until I get it fixed, I can't listen to the radio in my car. :(  It was a rather exhausting and emotional day.  The next three days were pretty good, so that made up for it.

Friday, my mom went with me to pickup a load of birds from a rescue in Waukesha.  I was planning to get five cockatiels, but when I arrived, I saw one lonely ring-neck dove (like Saffron), and decided to bring him home. Cypress and Valentino both miss Saffron, so I thought they would be happy to see another friend for their little flock.  None of them came with histories or names. They had come from another rescue, so all I know is that they think the cockatiels are 2-3 years old.

I'm annoyed that I can't get any really good pictures of the birds right now. I have misplaced my camera's battery charger, and I can't get good pictures of the birds with my cell phone camera.

I spent most of Friday and Saturday in the herbivore room, making sure everyone got settled okay.  The new birds' wings had been trimmed, unfortunately, so it will be months before they can learn to fly competently.  They are able to navigate the room okay, though, because I have lots of bridges and walkways specifically so the birds who can't fly or are weaker fliers are able to get around and stick with their friends.

Max and Elvis had no interest in the new birds. They really are immersed in their own little universe.



Poppy was immediately entranced, particularly with the bird who looked like Franklin (Briar) and the one who looked like his mommy and aunt (Calla).  He spent the first night hanging right in between the two with a special fixation toward Calla (fake mommy).  By the next morning, he had clearly developed a creepy stalker interest in her, sticking within 8 inches and staring at her non-stop. He also started protecting her from any other birds.  She didn't seem to mind at all, but wasn't yet interacting with him. It takes a couple of days for the new birds to get past being overwhelmed by having so much space and freedom.  He sang to her, danced for her, and showed her his two special secret hiding "caves".  By Monday, she was interacting with him and they were sticking together, instead of him just following her like a stalker.  By Tuesday they were grooming each other. They are now officially a pair.

Azalea and Begonia

Acacia and Briar

Even better, all of the eight cockatiels have pair bonded now:  Max and Elvis (of course), Poppy and Calla, Briar and Acacia, and Begonia and Azalea.  I think Max and Elvis will probably remain on their own, but I'm anticipating that now that the other six have paired, they will form a flock.

Vali and Cypress both like Cedar (the new ring-neck dove), and the three of them are communicating and interacting with each other. Each of them is a different type of dove, but they definitely respond to each other and largely ignore the hookbills and finches.  Vali mingles with them sometimes; Cypress enjoys watching them but doesn't really interact or communicate with them.

Saturday, Luce and I went to Jefferson to pick up Wilbur the guinea pig, so Piglet has a little friend.  She loves her rabbit and bird friends, but it's important to have another guinea pig--no species likes to be the only one in their world. Wilbur is tiny for a male, and he endured a pretty awful abusive and neglectful life prior to landing at the Humane Society.  Unfortunately, Wilbur was just neutered yesterday, so he has to spend the next month in a large cage, so we don't risk having a litter of piggies.  I will probably let them have supervised play time in a couple of weeks, and I should be able to tell from that when his testosterone is finally gone and it's safe to let him out permanently.  He is very shy but quite a sweetie. He has the silkiest hair!

Vegan Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip, Cookie Dough Milkshake

Sunday, Luce took animal duty so Mark and I could go to Chicago with Dej. She wanted to go to Garfield Conservatory and Chicago Diner. I was really stressed about leaving the animals for so long and almost didn't end up going, but I'm glad I did. We had a great day at the conservatory. It was just stunning.  It goes without saying that Chicago Diner was amazing. We ate too much, brought home lots of food, and I wished we could have eaten twice as much!

Other than my extensive travels, I've been hanging out in the herbivore room getting to know everyone and just observing the interactions.  I had two different large programming projects, a database assignment, and a business plan project (10-12 page papers) all come in this week, so I will be grading pretty much non-stop from the time I finish this post until Monday morning. I may not get everything finished.  I also have several hours of work to get done for my board duties (database data manipulation, database programming, and a website migration) as soon as possible. I'm pretty sure caffeine abuse will be required over the next several days.

In the kitchen

Yesterday (Sunday) Mark and Luce went to IL to visit his family.  Only two of the three of us can go, due to the animals, so I spent the day with them. I had originally planned of using the day to get some database work done, but I didn't get the authentication info I needed, so I switched to a kitchen day. I'm on spring break this week, so I have some flexibility and will do the work tomorrow and Weds. instead.

I had a fairly productive day, listening to Pandora radio, dancing, and cooking and cleaning.  I wiped down and refilled the spices, and re-organized my spice cabinet. I love a freshly organized kitchen! I also like the smell of my spice cabinet, and sometimes just open it up to take a deep sniff.

I made:

• five pounds of seitan
• a double batch of suet:  I most often use this recipe but add birdseed and nuts to it. 

• hummus wraps for Luce's lunches: I make her two a week, because she claims mine always taste better than hers. She handles the rest of her lunches.
• lentil brown rice soup:  This was a new recipe, and I made way too much of it. I had enough to freeze for another meal.We'll eat it Tuesday (soup night), but I tasted it, and it's very good. 

• pizza (Sunday dinner); I most often use this crust recipe, but I fold in a good portion of garlic before I roll out the crust. We really like the garlicky crust. 

getting ready to go into the oven..

• roasted broccoli (to go with the pizza) 
  

Living Vegan: shower and skin care

I've been a vegan for over 20 years. All of my close friends are vegan (with a handful of vegetarians in the group), and I don't remember what it's not to NOT be vegan. It's the only normal I know.  I routinely get asked the same series of questions by those starting out on their vegan path, and each time I type up long, detailed diatribes in response to the email or IM, I tell myself that I should get organized and save my responses, so I don't have to keep typing out the same things.  One slight problem with that is that products and ingredients change quite often, so that what might have been a great vegan guide in 2015 no longer works in 2017.  For example, a few years ago, Mary Kay and Avon both had some vegan-friendly products, but both have since resumed animal testing, rendering all of their products cruel and non-vegan.  Some of the products I loved years ago, I've tried to move away from, because though they are still technically vegan, the once small ethical companies get purchased by the big conglomerates, and I try to keep my money from supporting them.

On the one hand, I can see why people find moving to a vegan lifestyle intimidating--all the label reading, things constantly changing, so you have to stay up on what's ethical and what's not.  On the other hand, even if you're not vegan, surely you already read labels with an eye for your health and/or the environment. If not, you should be! Your body and long-term health are far too important to blindly consume products without a full understanding of where and how they are made, what they are made of, and the various social/health/environmental implications involved. If you knew when you purchased your first car that it would be the only care you would ever be allowed to have for the rest of your life, I'm confident that most of us would be quite faithful about maintenance and the quality of the fuel and other fluids added. We have one body.  One. What you put into it and one it is vitally important to the long-term quality of life that you do (or do not) enjoy.  Read labels and shop wisely!
 

This says "NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS", which is helpful,
but doesn't necessarily mean vegan.
You still have to read ingredients on this one.

The Leaping Bunny logo (right below recycle logo)

I appreciate the vegan labels that make life a little easier. You don't have to read through all of the ingredients if you see either the leaping bunny logo or the V/Vegan logo. I know I have products with the vegan logo, but I just don't feel like searching all of my bottles and jars at the moment. 

In this country, money has become the only thing that matters or confers any power or authority.  The only power or vote you have in this world is how and where you spend your money.  Use your very limited power and vote on the world you want with your shopping habits.

Part of being vegan, perhaps the biggest part, is not consuming any animal products.  That's probably a little more straightforward that the rest of being vegan.  We don't use any products that contribute in any way to animal suffering or exploitation.  Since most of the major drug store/grocery store brands do  a significant amount of animal testing, those are all off the table.  After eliminating the animal tested products, then it's time to check ingredients. There are a lot of ingredients to watch for, and don't burn yourself out trying to go from 0 to perfect in a week.  Start by eliminating the big, obvious, non-vegan ingredients:  gelatin, honey, beeswax, lanolin, etc.  Once you're feeling confident with that, and it starts to feel easy, then you can dig into the less obvious stuff:  carmine/cochineal, collagen, etc.

I'll start with highlighting some of the products we use.

I use the empty container to mix the  "shampoo".
First 2 TBSP of baking soda with water;
then with about 6 TBSP of red vinegar with water to wash my hair.

Large jar in the back is coconut oil. I buy in bulk and fill
smaller containers.
The Marrakesh and Zoe oils are from VC.
routine deodorant rocks!

HAIR:  I haven't used shampoo for many, many years.  I switched to the no 'poo (baking soda and vinegar) method a long time ago and will never go back to shampoo. I spent my entire life trying to get rid of split ends (I don't treat or style my hair, so it drove me nuts that I always had split ends!), and nothing worked until I quit shampoo.  I do still use conditioner, but I've been looking into trying to get away from that (switching to various oil treatments instead).  My hair is very dry (VERY!), curly, with a tendency to frizz, so I've been wimpy about trying to move away from conditioner. I've used Jason's brand primarily for years, though I think the quality has degraded in the last decade.  I get a nice variety of hair products through my Vegan Cuts box, so I usually have a variety of hair oils, masques, conditioners, etc., that I really enjoy using. If they're fantastic, I order them on my own. I really enjoy getting to try a variety of good quality vegan products.  I don't enjoy shopping or wandering through stores, so I would never be exposed to or try many of the new vegan brands that I've been exposed to through VC.  (Not paid or compensated in any way. I just really like their boxes.)

Because I do have long, curly, dry hair, the only product I use for stying is coconut oil (or any of the VC hair oil products).  On occasion, I get other hair styling products from them, and my daughters are happy to use them up.  If my hair lays okay, I leave it down. If it lays strangely or looks too big, it goes into a pony tail. That's the extent of my hair efforts.

I have tried perhaps all of the natural deodorants through the years and found most of them (just like the non-natural deodorants) to be fairly ineffective. I finally found one that works for me, and it was through my Vegan Cuts box. I fell in love with the Routine brand deodorant that they sent me, and ordered more as soon as it ran out. It seems quite expensive for deodorant, but it takes a very tiny amount to do the job, so it lasts for a very long time. 

CLEANSING:  I've enjoyed a huge variety of Vegan Cuts skin care products, and I'm glad to see such a variety of quality products available. My go-to cleanser is Say Yes to Coconuts (my daughter uses Say Yes to Carrots). I use a night cream and a day cream with sunscreen, and those brands change constantly. I like to experiment.  I use coconut oil for makeup remover.

I have dry, sensitive skin, which is prone to eczema, so I have always used very gentle cleansing products. I always have Dr. Bronner's soaps in the shower, but also tend to rotate through a variety of other gentle, soap-free cleansers (many of the from VC).  Despite having incredibly dry skin, I quit using traditional lotions many years ago and switched to coconut oil as my moisturizer.  My skin is less dry than it's ever been. My eczema breakouts are now extremely rare, and I no longer have those nasty bumps on the backs of my arms.

Any minor skin wounds or pimples get treated first with Tea Tree Oil (either the plain oil or the antiseptic ointment).

I think the product we've had the hardest time with is toothpaste. Each of us has had our preferences, and up until recently, we haven't agreed on the same brand.  Luciana is extremely picky about toothpaste and always has been. She used only baking soda for a couple of years, because she didn't like any of the brands that we were using.  Though I can buy different brands for each of us, life is a lot easier if we stick with one. We all agree on the Hello brand toothpaste. I really wish it didn't have fluoride. That is my only complaint. I'm still on the lookout for the perfect fluoride-free vegan toothpaste.

Poor Charlie has been looking for a snuggle buddy since Basil died. He and Basil were always touching when they slept and often hugged each other as they slept. He is a very affectionate guy, and keeps trying to creep up on the other cats and stealth snuggle them. He generally gets shut down but will still try to creep closer and closer, or slip out a paw, slowly, moving a hair's width at a time until he makes contact with his sleeping snuggle candidate. Sometimes the hand holding is tolerated, sometimes not. He just needs to work on building relationships more slowly.  Tica does not like Charlies snuggling advances. The girls snuggle humans or sleep alone. They boys tend to want to be in physical contact with someone (human, cat, or both) while they sleep. Tica's face says it all. He got close enough to make contact, and she tolerated it but only because I was right there. If I'm not close, she moves as soon as he gets within about 6 inches of her. I don't think he's ever been mean to her, but he's three times her size and it frightens her.
I was back to working alone in the kitchen this weekend.  I made 2 batches of dog food, so I'll be good for a few weeks again.  Damon went to the vet this week (his chronic ear condition took a nasty turn), and he's gained a little more weight, so I'll have to cut his food intake back a bit. I don't want to stress his arthritic back end with any extra weight! I made the following but didn't get to pressure cooking the chickpeas. I'll have to do that at some point this week.

• Spanish rice (to include in the next dish)
• Layered nachos/Mexican casserole (I have no idea what to call this; I just throw stuff together--Spanish rice, black beans, refried beans, tomatoes, spices/seasonings, salsa, topped with Daiya)
• Three-bean tomato curry soup
• Eggplant & chickpea curry (with quinoa)
• (Frozen) chocolate bananas - bananas dipped in cashew butter, dark chocolate, and topped with chopped walnuts & pecans; a delicious, protein-packed, healthy dessert

Damon had his swim appointment Friday, and we brought Sophie along (Dej's dog) to see if she would enjoy it.  She did not love it.  Damon loved it enough for both of them, though. He spend his entire hour swimming--not getting out of the pool at all.  He loved these stuffed chicken toys that she has there (Dunkin Dawgs), and spent most of his swim time carrying around 2-3 water toys at a time.  He didn't want to give up the chickens at all, but would let me take one (as long as he could keep the other in his mouth) to throw for him.  He repeatedly fetched and grabbed the toy without losing the two others in his mouth. It was so cute and quite impressive.  

When it was time to go, we had a lot of difficulty getting him out.  Every muscle in his 111 pound body fought to stay in the pool.  It took three of us to physically drag him from the pool, leaving me extremely wet.  He was so, so sad to go.  He really wanted to take "his" chicken with him and worked pretty hard to try to sneak it out.  Unfortunately for him, I noticed the bright-colored chicken hanging out of his mouth, though he did his best to keep his face pressed toward the door and away from me.  Our next trip to  Mounds will involve hunting for a chicken toy like that.  Damon really likes his toys. He plays with them; he shows them off to guests; he destroys them pretty quickly, though. I'm hoping he loves the chicken enough that he won't shred it so quickly.

Starting finals week...Wish me luck

I have SOOO Many projects and presentations to grade!

This weekend I skipped my full kitchen day. I did just the bare necessities (dog food, post-workout smoothies, and Sunday's dinner), so I could have more time to grade.  I pulled a batch of root vegetable chili out of the freezer for one meal this week.  I also pulled out some home-made Italian sausage that will go well with a rice-lentil pilaf (that I have to prepare Weds.).  That's about as far as I got.  I spent the remainder of the day grading and getting the tree decorated (with L).  I will have more meal-prep work during the week, but I only have to go in for exams this week, so I get home early enough that I can handle it.

I'm running out of nearly everything, so it's time for a grocery store run again. I put those trips off as long as possible. Eventually, Luciana's whining about no "GOOD" food irritates me enough that I force myself to brave the horrible grocery store.  If I lived alone, I would probably endure several weeks of eating strange combinations and nearly nothing before eventually making the trip. I'm very lucky that M doesn't mind going out in public (I absolute hate going to stores, for a million reasons, but the big one being too many variables and too little control--I can't be fully prepared for every contingency, and that makes me very uncomfortable.) and volunteers happily to make little runs for produce and small incidentals. He doesn't do the full shopping, but I can get by for 3-6 weeks without going to a store, based on one large trip and several "Mark runs".

Sunday's dinner was:

• Chili-mac (made with leftover chili from baked potatoes)
• Roasted broccoli - this is one of Luce's favorite snacks/meals, and my favorite way to eat broccoli. I roasted almost three pounds of broccoli. We have none left.
• Baked tofu (pressed and marinated in spicy peanut sauce, dipped in ground walnuts/sea salt/cayenne, and baked--no recipe, but pretty easy to throw together)

M worked both Friday and Sunday at the light show. He also had to go to Madison early Sunday morning for a news interview. Because of the unseasonably warm weather, they've had phenomenal attendance at the show, which is great from a fundraising standpoint.  Unfortunately the warm weather came with rain/mist/fog and puddles, which make it really difficult to keep everything functioning at the outdoor light show.  M runs ragged flipping switches and re-wiring things due to the wetness. He's due for a little downtime, as he's been working too hard again lately--wearing himself out.

He has finally agreed to let me be his "trainer".  He won't work out with me--not even on the same floor, but he is going along with a program that I've created for him.  He already has a pretty healthy diet, simply because I prepare all three of his meals and makes sure they are extremely healthy and nutritious.  His snacks could be a little less carb. based, but that's not a huge issue. Anyway, I'm excited for him to start feeling more healthy, strong, energetic--probably in 6-8 weeks, he will feel like a new man.  I know how much better I feel and how every aspect of my life improved as a result of getting healthy and fit, and I wish everyone could experience the same!

Because of my obsessive nature, I'm compelled to learn absolutely everything about almost anything I become involved with. I could never just workout on a regular basis. I had to learn everything about the science of movement, nutrition, the muscular system, the main theories of fitness, and so many other topics.  When I started teaching, I became immersed in learning about the brain, how it learns, what inhibits learning, the history of education and all of the philosophies of ed. throughout history, etc.  I took college courses (grad & undergrad), many seminars, read dozens of books, joined websites, participated in hours of discussion and exchange of best practices.  I research, study, practice, ask questions--in short, become completely overtaken by the subject, until I feel that I've reached a level of mastery. Then I can happily practice and continue to use the concepts, or in some cases, once I've learned everything, I become bored and simply move on. I acquire far more knowledge on any given topic than is useful or practical, and I often feel guilty about it, because that's time that could be spent more productively or wisely. I try to assuage the guilt by 'reminding myself' that my hobby is the actual learning, more so the specific domain in which I'm currently dabbling, and indulging in a hobby is a healthy mental outlet.  Anyway, all this to say, it's really nice if I have the chance to help others with the ridiculous amount of  unnecessary knowledge that I've acquired in the pursuit of my learning hobby. In this case, helping my husband get fit and feel as good as I do, kind of helps justify the hundreds of hours I spent learning more than I ever need to know about health and fitness. :)

Last year was the first appearance of the surprise Shaun T tree ornaments, custom made by L. She cut the Shaun T images out of my Asylum volumes 1 and 2, and Hip Hop Abs and pasted different heads on the body to make them bobble heads that she hung on the tree. I think my T25 Gamma has been left untouched.  She dubbed our tree "The Shaun Tree."  We got the tree all done this year (without them), and she whipped out the Shaun T ornaments and put them back up. I guess they are tradition.

Lip balm

As someone who suffers from very dry skin and hair, I go through pounds of lip balm, especially in the winter.  Finding chemical-free, vegan lip balm isn't very easy, and it is typically fairly expensive, so I decided to try to make my own.  I found some recipes online to get a general idea of where to start, and then I modified until I liked the results.

I used 4 tablespoons coconut oil (virgin), 4 tablespoons soy wax (pure, no additives other than natural soy), 1 teaspoon Vitamin E oil, a few drops of Tea Tree oil, and a few drops of an essential oil (optional - I used sweet orange for a citrus-scented balm).  Melt the soy wax (I used a glass dish in the microwave, but a double boiler works too), then stir in the coconut oil to melt. Add the essential oils, pour into containers, and let set. 

For a firmer balm, use more soy wax, for softer, use less.  

I also experimented with tinting.  I used beet juice in one, but I don't think I used enough. It doesn't have a visible tint, so I need to experiment more with that.  I also used a small chunk of a vegan lipstick to tint another, and that one turned out well.  

I had some containers lying around (I don't throw nice containers away, because I can always repurpose them), and I put in boiling water to sterilize and used those.

It was incredibly inexpensive, quick, and easy, and I don't think I will ever need to purchase lip balm again. Once I use up the remaining roll-up tubes I have, I will re-use those, so I can have a batch in tubes, in addition to the little makeup pots.

If you're interested in trying it and local, let me know, and I'll give you some soy wax.  I had to purchase a ten pound bag, which is inexpensive, but more than I will need in a lifetime.

FTP

Lila and her cute tongue

We've been streaming X-Files on Netflix and watching with Luciana. We started with the first episode and have been going through sequentially (still on first season, I think), and we've been really enjoying it. We kind of break the "healthy family dinner" rules, in that we generally have three or so meals per week in front of the television.  That's the only time we have television on, and we only choose shows we like to watch as a family (unless we're doing a family movie night or something like that).  I am aware that family dinners are important and should not involve TV, but we find this works for us. We have a lot of family together time and time where we chat at length about our respective days, but none of us likes to talk while eating. I have a strong preference to read while I eat, but basically anything is better than conversation. I'm the world's slowest eater, so conversation only makes that worse.  M & I (and Dej) watched the X-Files religiously the first time around.  The show was part of our dating life, as we had a standing weekly X-Files date before we moved in together.  It's fun to watch again almost 20 years later--it's still a good show, and we are enjoying sharing it with L.  It was an important show to us back then, when one still had to schedule one's life around the good tv shows, so our Friday nights (then Sunday nights) were dedicated to a special meal (enchiladas, pizzas--only the "special" meals that everyone loved and looked forward to were good enough for X-F) and the show. It's fun to pass that history down to L and let her experience it with us.  The theme is timeless and relevant:  The truth is out there (but our skeevy government will lie, cheat, and kill to hide it).

Jasper and his cute tongue

L & I have been reading, "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, for our bedtime reading.  We're a bit more than halfway through. I haven't read this book for at least 15 years, and the last time I read it, we were so much farther from this being a reality than we are now. This book now seems closer to truth than fiction, and it's distressing to see how very close we are to such a dystopian nightmare. HT is an excellent and very important book but a fairly depressing read.  I wanted to jump to Upton Sinclair's, The Jungle, next, but we might need something a little more pleasant between the books about a dystopian future and nightmarish past. L is studying labor unions/labor issues in the early 20th century, so The Jungle would be a perfect complement to that. I may just assign that to her as independent reading rather than our bedtime reading. It's vital that she read it, but it's pretty depressing reading right before going to sleep. I have a couple of weeks to think about it and decide what's to do next.

Prior to this book, we read the very good but very long, "I Know This Much Is True", by Wally Lamb. That is such a good story--we both thoroughly enjoyed it.  I enjoy the interesting discussions we have after/while reading.

Damon's recurrent staph infection of his skin is back. I'm SO frustrated. He had the skin infection when we adopted him. He has not made it past three weeks without antibiotics since then. I give him his Cephalaxin as prescribed, completely finish the entire prescription, and everything clears up.  Within three weeks of going off the drugs, however, he ends up with another raging infection.  Always on the skin, but always different areas. I don't like him on so many antibiotics and I feel that he's had the same one enough that the staph is probably growing resistant. I have him on probiotics, which help, but I know that antibiotics mess up his digestive system, too.  Poor guy!  I'm going to start a major research project to see if I can come up with anything that will help.

Kitchen day this weekend produced dog food (which I guess will be an every weekend thing, so no need to continue to include it) and the following:

• Pizza
• Baked potatoes & chili
• Chickpea Ratatouille & quinoa
• Tempeh bacon (for tempeh, Tofurkey, tomato, and hummus wraps)
• Fudge. Delicious, fairly healthy-ish fudge.

Mark's Birthday

We've had a fairly social holiday weekend, especially considering I'm in my depressed-not-sleeping-don't-want-to-leave-the-house-mode.

Wednesday night was our annual comedy show outing to see my old college friend who started off in the same major as me and ended up being a professional comedian. I was not planning to go, as I had no sleep and wasn't in the frame of mind to talk to people or leave the house. We tried to give our tickets away, but it was very last minute (a couple hours before showtime), and nobody could make it. Mark really wanted to go, so I went ahead, and as it turns out, we had a lot of fun and laughed a ton.

Thursday was a low-key Thanksgiving celebration at my parents' house. 

Friday was Mark's birthday. I hope he enjoys being 44 more than I did. He & Russ spent the entire day watching Game of Thrones season 2 (violence & porn, yay) and drinking beer. It was his request that I deliver his birthday meal of choice: shepherd's pie with spicy cashew gravy and fruit smoothies. My parents stopped by just as I was packaging the food, so they saved me from having to leave the house.

Saturday was M's birthday dinner party, thrown by our friend Julie. She is such a good cook and hostess that when she offered to throw a party for M, I knew it would be awesome and better than anything I could come up with. I try to emulate her awesome hostessing and cooking skills and always fall short. She makes everything from scratch, and it's always delicious. She would not let anyone bring anything!

The appetizers consisted of crudités, chips, crackers, and a choice of dips. Note that the silver candle had little Happy Birthday pendants dangling, and it spins when lit. There were several really good beer options as well as wine--M enjoyed the beer, but my stomach is not happy and I can't drink at this time).

The main course was pizza. She made and pre-baked the crusts when we arrived, then we each loaded our own with the homemade sauce, lots of veggie choices, vegan cheese choices, and protein choices (pepperoni, Italian sausage, salami, and the most delicious pizza-flavored fried tofu triangles, which Marina and I kept chowing on while making the pizzas). We munched on the appetizers and pizza toppings while our pizzas baked.

Dessert was a chocolate-raspberry cake with a rum-chocolate frosting. It was fucking phenomenal, of course. In addition to the crown she got him, she also had a lotus candle on the cake. I have never seen one of these before, but when the inside center wick is lit, it starts to spin, opening the lotus flower with each of the petal candles lighting, and it plays happy birthday. It was quite a show!

After eating way too much, we moved to the living room and enjoyed good conversation in front of a warm fire. It was such a pleasant evening, and we're so grateful to have a friend like Julie. She put in a tremendous amount of work in preparation. She was also very pushy about not letting anyone clean up, and it bothered Marina and I a lot to leave knowing she still had so much work to do.

It's technically my turn to host a get together for our group at some point this month. It's always hard for me to do this following a get together at Julie's, because there's no way I can match her skill.

I did my normal Sunday refrigerator clean out/organization before starting my cooking on Sunday, and was pleased to find that we have so many leftovers (good ones, too!) that I didn't need a full meal until Friday. I will throw that together on Friday. I used yesterday's kitchen time to make a giant batch of dog food and a giant batch (6.5 pounds!) of seitan. That should last us a couple of months. I cut it into small cubes, put 1 pound per freezer bag/container and freeze. It stores very well this way and retains its texture and flavor when thawed.  I use the seitan recipe from Vegan Vengeance, but this is also from Isa and is quite similar: PPK seitan. I also made some roasted red pepper hummus and a batch of my post-workout smoothies (bananas, beets, spinach, mixed berries, coconut milk, hemp protein powder).

Charlie and Tica (Oliver in the back); Charlie is more than twice Tica's weight/size!

Treat Yo'self

I was thinking it had been about six weeks since my last post, but YIKES--more than two months. I really need to set aside a set time on at least a weekly basis, so I remember to blog. I'm still struggling with meeting my responsibilities in the too-short time I have each day, but additionally, I'm now out of the habit and simply forget to blog.

I got a very cool birthday gift this year.  (My birthday was last week.)  I don't generally like my birthday or like gifts/cards at all--for many, many reasons.  However, my friend, Julie (a smart and stubborn woman) was determined to get me a gift. She knows me well enough to know I am a nightmare to shop for. I don't like waste at all; I don't want stuff taking up space around my house and serving no purpose; I don't like my friends spending money on me (it could be donated to a better cause than me); I boycott the majority of companies/businesses for ethical/moral reasons, so finding vegan, fair-trade, ethically-sourced, high-quality products from a company with tolerable business practices is an epic endeavor. Other than wasting her time and a nominal amount of money, she got me a gift without throwing me into paroxysms of guilt.

First, the packaging: She used a wicker basket (we are rabbit people, so we buy those by the ton from thrift stores) from her rabbit supply.  The cool-looking bow was made with twine that held together the hay bales she buys for the rabbits.  The wicker basket, now that it's empty, will make a wonderful hay-holder/toy for the rabbits.  The twine is used by my birds, who love to separate the strands and build with them.

Then, the gift: She gathered one of each kind of organic root vegetable (garlic, onion, leek, each type of potato, each type of sweet potato/yam, celeriac, rutabaga, turnip, parsnip, carrot, etc.) and a handful of other veggies.  It was fun, and pretty, and very useful.

The next day was my "kitchen day" (usually Sundays, when I make/prep the majority of the meals for the week), so I was anxious to make something delicious. I turned all of that into this root vegetable chili.  I followed this recipe loosely, but I obviously had different/additional ingredients and a ton of it, so I modified and tweaked until I was happy with it.  I ended up with an enormous quantity of soup--enough for a full family meal (with lunch leftovers) and a second full meal to freeze for later. It was absolutely wonderful.

My parents & parents-in-law also insist on giving me a little cash to treat myself with, and that is paying for another workout program. I was hoping Shaun T's T25 Delta would be out by now, but no sign of it yet. :(  I have spent the last two weeks evaluating programs and have settled on Body Beast.  I'm as excited as I can be for a workout that doesn't involve Shaun T!  :)  I like the promise that it will build ten pounds of lean muscle mass in 90 days. I'd be quite happy with five!

One of the most common questions I get from vegans and non-vegans is, "what do you eat?"  Let's see how well I do at sticking with this...I'm going to try to list out my Sunday meal prep results each week, to give an idea of what we eat.  I generally focus on getting the first part of the week's meals done. I don't so much worry about Fri-Sun., as I have more time and flexibility on non-work days and often have leftovers that I use to fill in some of those meals as well.  It won't be a full week's worth of meals, but at least a general idea.  This is somewhat complicated by the fact that I don't really have names for many of my meals (and many are simply thrown together with no recipe). Also, food photography isn't my forte, and I don't want to post pictures that make delicious food look ugly. I will provide recipes if they're available digitally.

Yesterday, I prepped the following meals

• "Mexican lasagna" (Spanish rice, seasoned black refried beans, tomatoes, Daiya;  topped with tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream)     
• Minestrone soup
• Red beans & rice
• Stir-fried veggies (broc., cauli., carrots, water chestnuts, peppers) in peanut sauce (I will serve over barley or quinoa):  The linked recipe includes the burgers that this peanut sauce was originally intended for. The burgers are delicious, and I make them often. The sauce is fantastic and very versatile, so I tend to make a big batch of it and use it as a marinade, topping for burgers, or mixed in with any pasta/grain/veggie combo. It's an easy way to make quick, amazing dishes with minimal effort.

I'm stuck in 1940, and I can't get out...

Eating delicious, real food definitely increases the time spent in the kitchen, and though I've gotten better and more efficient at food prep, I still spend 3-6 hours in the kitchen, either on Saturday or Sunday, usually, in order to get the dishes prepared and the prep done so that we can eat well all week without waiting until 9 PM for dinner.  I do not love spending 4+ hours in the kitchen, but I do love eating really delicious food all week long, so I've tried to make them more interesting. I find that I dread my "kitchen days" much less now that I've made them more challenging by trying to accomplish as much as possible within my time frame. By making the work harder, more complicated, more challenging, it keeps me from getting bored.

My previous week's kitchen day, this was the list of chores:

Truffles

• pack lunches
• chop red peppers for guinea pigs
• roast red peppers (for hummus I'm making later this week)
• chop veggies for nachos
• make cheezy rice for nachos
• make double batch of veggie burgers to freeze (for lunches, snacks, meals on the go, etc.)
• make double batch of eggplant curry burgers to freeze (for lunches, snacks, meals on the go, etc.)
• make potato seitan miso stew (I made and froze seitan a couple of weeks ago)
• make 3-bean tomato curry soup
• make peanut butter truffles, (which turned out so well that I experimented and made cashew & almond butter truffles and a batch of strawberry truffles as well)
• peel and prep head of garlic (I like to keep prepared garlic and ginger on hand for quick use in recipes)
• pressure cook black beans (I keep a variety of cooked beans in the freezer, so I don't have to use canned)
• make trail mix
• cut and dehydrate sweet potatoes for dog treats

Sweet Potato chews for the dogs

Prior week's list:  

• pressure cook kidney beans
• roast red peppers (for hummus)
• make hummus (for coating kale chips)
• make kale chips
• make peanut lime sriracha marinade
• chop veggies (for roasting) and marinate
• chop and marinate tofu
• roast veggies
• bake tofu
• make black bean sweet potato chili
• pack lunches
• chop veggies for pizza
• make pizza
• make chocolate-covered marzipan

Each week I try to add more and up the challenge a bit, to see how much I can get done without making irreparable mistakes.  Each week there are different tasks and different dishes, and that keeps it from being horrifically boring.  It makes for a much smoother, more pleasant week, when I have the meals already planned and either ready to reheat or just throw together and heat.  I am, begrudgingly, starting to dread the kitchen days a little less and sometimes almost enjoy myself.  I think I am developing Stockholm Syndrome with my kitchen. 

I will never go back to eating processed crap and after eating so very well for so long, I don't think any of us would be able to tolerate food from a less-intense kitchen schedule, so I've accepted that it's an unfortunate but permanent weekend necessity.  My challenge now is to try to get better and more efficient each week, so I can accomplish more in less time. That's what I'm working on refining now.  I currently need one weekend day (at least) for grading and one for cooking, which leaves me with no weekend. I have dreams of maximizing my efficiency such that I could get both done in one day, but that doesn't feel very realistic at this point.

I have a little fantasy that L will develop a passion for cooking and will take over the kitchen duties. She has shown no inclination to do so, but I can dream. So far, her interest in learning to cook has been focused on the foods she likes to eat.  She has mastered making a few snack/dessert-type foods, with her favorite being sliced, roasted, seasoned potatoes. I am much happier with her making and eating these than chips, so I don't complain when I come down in the morning to find she's been leaving kitchen messes for me.  She has learned--(as we all have) that the preparation of food, touching it, smelling it, putting effort into it--makes eating it more enjoyable.  Another benefit is that one is much less likely to eat absent mindedly if one has to wash, slice, season, and cook the potatoes than if one can just grab a hand full of chips out of a bag. It's a good cure for eating out of boredom.

I would like to illustrate this post with pretty food pictures, but I find food photography fairly difficult. Whenever I try to photograph food, it never looks as delicious as it tastes, and sometimes it looks pretty gross.  I know that it takes some skill to get the beautiful and appetizing food shots that I enjoy looking at in the cookbooks and my favorite websites, and I just don't have the time or interest right now to work on those skills.  I have done a little reading on the subject and find myself horrified by how much food gets wasted and how long it really takes to get that perfect shot. I don't have the patience for that!

This is my kitchen planning board.  On the right side, I jot down my list of weekend "kitchen-day" chores.  On the left side, I keep a shopping list, and as I run out/get low on things while cooking, I add them to the list.  Once each meal is either prepped or done (depending on the meal and how well it keeps), I write it on the day of the week I plan to consume the meal.  By the end of my kitchen day, the board is a mess, but it helps keep me organized. I can snap a photo and have my shopping list ready to go to the store with me, and then clean up the board, leaving only the planned meals for the week.

My family enjoys modifying and adding to my list almost every week. I find myself wondering when they will run out of strange items to add to the list.  Note the three strange entries for this week (toasted spleen chips, fart goblin stew, and juicy groin).  They were written by two different people, so both M & L have taken to adding to my list.  I'm not sure which of the two started it, but it has apparently become a tradition.

On the chore list above, one of the entries was to make sausage. This was a new recipe for me, and it turned out very well. It's an Isa recipe, and hers are always hits. It was fairly simple and much less expensive (and more delicious) than buying vegan sausages.  I made this one:  Italian sausage, but there is another one on her site I plan to try soon:  Smoky maple sausages.

I used this recipe for the peanut butter truffles, but I did not use the rice crisp cereal at all. I used crunchy peanut butter. Also, I didn't have coconut flour, so I made oat flour and used that.  They were still ridiculously good.