Unbelievable!  I'm out of the office for a couple days and apparently I miss "refrigerator clean out" day?  Grrrrrr.... while I'm all for cleaning out the crap that has sat in there for weeks and weeks (decomposing fruit, spoiled drinks, etc), a small thing of maple syrup and a bag of ground flaxseed wasn't hurting anyone!  Yet it's all gone.  :-(

I had to make my oatmeal this morning with water, cinnamon, vanilla extract and some raw sugar.  It was OK, but pales in comparison to the dish I usually enjoy.

Jerks.

As I was picking up some prescriptions yesterday, I at least had the foresight to grab something for lunch from Whole Foods.  They happily had some ready-made brown rice veggie sushi!  Made with carrots, avocado, cucumber, green leaf lettuce, with a white miso dressing to dip it in, if I so desire.  Do I revel in paying $7.50 for lunch?

Hell no.

But it was easy and quick, and I felt like crap yesterday.  So I'm dealing with it.  And going to enjoy it for lunch :-)  I love love looooove sushi (vegetarian, of course) and this will make Monday a little more palatable. 

I will, however, learn to roll my own sushi.  So stay tuned to this space for future Colleen-Inspired Veggie Sushi rolls!  Or hear about how I cut my fingers trying to finely chop veggies.  Either way, good stories to come.

Whew, it's hard coming down from the high of a chili-fest win...  Not being particularly athletic, I can't say I received a ton of trophies growing up... a couple "participated" ones, and mostly just trumpet accolades.  So a trophy is still somewhat exciting to me!  This is like the Stanley Cup, in the sense that I get it for the year, and my name will be inscribed on it.  Since it's in the shape of a bowl, I'm thinking about drinking my tea from it every day and bringing it to all my meetings...  We'll see just how obnoxious I'd like to be with it!

But now I'm back and focused on cooking nice, healthy, nutrient filled meals!  Between that and catching up on TV and couch time, next week is going to be fun!.  High on my list of things to do is organize my freezer, eat the meals I've already frozen, and nail down some great recipes.  Pasta has been my go-to meal.  And by loading the sauce with veggies (tons of tomatoes, basil, kale, broccoli, onions, garlic, peppers and mushrooms), I eat significantly less of the pasta, and more of the veggies.

Seems like such an obvious solution.  And yet it has taken me thirty-(mumble mumble mumble) years to come up with that one.

CHILI DAY!!!!!

It's Chili Day at work today! I can't even believe it's finally here again... truly the best day of the year.

Which makes my work sound sad.

But it's a very intense, high-spirited annual chili contest that we have here. There are over 30 contestants this year, and I'm looking to at LEAST place, and hoping to win!

Last year I came in second, and while that was a decent showing, I'm looking to beat it this time. I'm up against all types of chilis - most of which are carnivorous. And there are NO indications whether it's veggie or not, so it's a fair competition.

(As a plant-based eater, I do get told which chilis I can sample, but the mass population doesn't know.)

I can't say that I truly have a "recipe" so to speak... I've been asked before, and my answer is usually "any veggies I have, crushed tomatoes, sometimes a textured soy protein, a mixture of beans, and any spices I may feel like at the time".

This time, since I want to win, I dialed down the spice level a little (still getting a firey red chili pepper classification, but it won't kill you). I also used a veggie crumble that has a little sausage-like flavor that will certainly appeal to the carnivores.

I wouldn't call this a recipe, so to speak, but this is kind of what I did:
Colleen's "Chili Chili Bang Bang"

- veggie soy crumble
- veggie soy-sausage crumble
- red wine (sautéd things in it)
- balsamic vinegar
- worchestershire sauce
- salt
- pepper
- onions
- minced garlic
- frozen veggies (carrots, corn, peas)
- frozen broccoli
- black beans
- kidney beans
- cannelini beans
- crushed tomatoes
- diced tomatoes
- cumin, chili powder, fennel, cinnamon
- cilantro
- crushed hot cherry peppers (it's amaaaazing and I put it in everything)
- White truffle balsamic glace (a nwer thing I found, also amaaaaazing, and also goes on everything)

Chili is simmering away and I'm crossing my fingers!!!

Staying on track

OK I have used this excuse a lot, but this time I'm sincere. As soon as school is done (ONE more freaking week, thank GOD!), I am going to spend a lot more time prepping and preparing food. The last couple weeks have been so freaking packed with school, full time work, people visiting, trips, etc... and I just haven't taken the time to really dedicate some time and energy into cooking.

Thankfully I've realized that there are still plenty of options for quick and easy vegan meals, so I've not strayed really from my intentions. That was a huge relief for me. I was a little nervous that my laziness or cravings would take over and all good intentions would fly out the window at the first whiff of pizza. Happily it hasn't really happened. So I'm confident that this lifestyle really IS attainable for most people, if they so desire.

That being said, while I've certainly been eating plenty of veggies, I don't know that the veggie/carb ratio is what I'd like it to be. Carbs are just easier! So I am committed to tracking this down and really making a concerted effort to manage this. Once I manage it hands-on for a couple weeks, it will become a lot more second-nature. And since I'm also now inspired to do some more regular jogging, I need to make sure I energize effectively, so that I don't get unexpectedly hungry and find myself noshing on a Nature Valley Oats and Honey granola bar again. (My inadvertent breakfast today.)

But I'm making a little more effort right now, in preparation for the veggie bombardment that will be coming.

Lunch today will be a (hopefully!) delicious oil-free soup I picked up from Whole Foods...

Dinner will be a veggie subway grinder on whole wheat bread with jalapenos and mustard... My mouth is watering already....

Gooey deliciousness

I'm pretty proud of myself this weekend. I was faced with several temptations and I successfully avoided (most of) them!

My sister came up for the weekend and we hit Boston up! Walked around a lot and visited some of my favorite touristy/shopping spots: Quincy Market, DSW, and Ann Taylor. But we also hit some other nice spots: Cakeology, Sweet, and Pinkberry.

Now I have to admit, I was sorely, sorely tempted. The cupcake stores smelled delicious, looked delicious, FELT delicious... but I resisted amazingly. I had one indulgence: a small french macaron. Note: these are NOT macaroons. They are not even close. These are delightful little French pastries that are, in a word, extraordinary. I've traveled to Paris JUST to have some of these, they really are that good. So when I found out this shop sold them, I had to have one.

It was super tasty, and bite sized, so I let myself indulge. When we go to Paris and you see the size of them there (they can be palm sized!), you will love me even more! The pistachio ones there are my favorite, but followed so closely by the almond flavored, strawberry flavored.. mmmm... Weirdly I don't care for the chocolate ones...

Anyway, I digress. That was my one venture into the non-vegan world this weekend. I thought I may have been convinced by Pinkberry when I saw they had a new flavor: salted caramel. My heart skipped a beat, but I am pleased to say I resisted. I settled for a small decaf soy mocha frappe from Starbucks and I have to say that did the trick quite nicely. Dodge and weave, dodge and weave.

And to compensate and satisfy my lust for frosting covered deliciousness, I did eat a piece of amazing vegan carrot cake this weekend from Whole Foods. I definitely have to get to Cafe Indigo in Concord NH who supplies them, since they're freaking amazing.

Frosting treats done now for a while - back to plants, plants and more plants. And I'm making my chili for the contest this week!

I was exhausted last night and was so sooo tempted to go out for dinner. But then I told myself not tobe lazy and make something nice and healthy.

But I decided to be reasonable and make something nice and healthy. I roasted some small potatos and had some delicious tofu from Whole Foods. The tofu had oil, so I can't pretend it was the healthiest thing in the world, but it was so freaking tasty that it made up for not going out. And it was a one time ish thing.

And added benefit: I have some delicious potatos for lunch today along with some organic strawberries.

And this weekend I make my chili for the annual chili contest here at work! I've been thinking about it for the last couple weeks and have an idea of the spice palate I'm planning. I want to win this year! Last year was 2nd place and I'm looking to beat that :-)

Should have stopped with the first leche

OK last week was interesting. I was miserable during the week here, but maintained a happy vegan diet. But then the weekend hit. I was in FL with a friend of mine, and my parents met us for a couple days as well. I was mostly OK but am learning that I'm so easily influenced by others!

My friends are primarily vegetarian. This isn't something I've solicited deliberately - it just kind of happened, and it's been great. Actually, there have been no issues with my carnivorous friends either. I like to be with open-minded people one way or the other.

So out for the weekend with my veggie friend, I did feel the desire to try a couple things - I had a couple bites of a Rita's Frozen Custard. I don't know if it's because I hadn't had dairy in 6 weeks, but while it tasted nice at first, my mouth felt coated with some weird layer afterwards. And I felt terrible. Originally I had thought about bending every now and then for ice cream, and I still will be OK with that, but I'm starting to think I won't even want it.

I had a veggie corn dog. Yes, they exist! And I'll admit, it was delicious. Although a lot of that comes from the sheer oxymoron. But since it contains egg whites, it's not strictly vegetarian. I think this is something I may try from time to time, as a little treat. We'll see. It's still more processed than I'd prefer for a daily staple.

And we split a piece of tres leche cake. Because ONE leche was clearly insufficient. I felt as sick as I had after the frozen custard. I'm starting to fully understand the lactose impact. Which is weird since I used to have skim milk in my decaf every morning and thought I felt fine!

It's weird - you think everything is great and then you find a different way that you didn't even know existed, and it makes the previous status quo completely unacceptable.

I've always like Brussels

I had the most amazing dish the other night... my friend and I ordered take-out sushi from my absolute favorite sushi place in Boston. Of course I get the veggie sushi, made with brown rice, and it's always always delicious. But I was hungry so I threw in an appetizer as well with my order.

Brussels Sprouts.

And holy crap these were the best brussel sprouts I've ever tasted, and up there on the best appetizer or side veggie dish I've ever had!

The menu says it's brussels sprouts, red pepper, garlic and onion, and that really could have been it I guess. There was no sauce really, and it didn't taste at all oily, so at best there was a trace amount of that.

I'm DEFINITELY going to try recreating this. I can't say I've ever been a fan of cooked cabbage, and I know I'd hate overly cooked brussel sprouts, so I know the key is going to be in the preparation.

So to those of you that have cooked them recently (or ever!), any of your tips on how to cook them, I'll take willingly... :-)

But seriously, I think that was even better than the (small) piece of vegan chocolate cake I had Sat night when hanging out with my little cousin.

Or at least it was up there in the debate...