China!

I'm off to China tomorrow, expect lots of pictures and a very hungry vegan when I return.

Pomegranate, crackers, hummus

I had my first ever pomegranate yesterday and all I can say is wow. I think I have a new favorite fruit. It's a shame that pomegranates are so expensive around here ($2.50 each).

Today's lunch featured some pomegranate, hummus, pretzels, and Wasa sesame crackers.

My camera must not like the lighting in my room because my pictures are coming out abnormally blurry.

Pumpkin muffins and lunch

I made The Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance yesterday and Isa doesn't lie - these are the best and perfect for fall (and this is coming from a girl who considers muffins to be their own food group). If you don't have VwaV yet, you need to buy it. It is one of the best things that has ever happened to my mouth.



Today's lunch was a quick one, a muffin, mixed nuts, carrots, and an apple.

Delayed lunch: ramen, scone

I think this one is from Thursday:

Standby of ramen noodles, almonds, and a cranberry scone. The scone is from Vegan with a Vengeance so I'm not posting the recipe, but I used the basic scone recipe and added a cup of cranberries.


As you may have noticed, I haven't posted in the last few days. Unfortunately, this trend may be continued in the near future. I've been really busy with little time to make interesting lunches and even less time to post about them. Hope everyone is doing well!

Sweet potato, dates, kiwi

If nothing else, today's lunch was colorful. A kiwi, puppy chow, a sweet potato, dates, and walnuts. The cereal got a little soggy from the kiwi but it was still pretty good.

Chickpeas, tomatoes

I know groceries are running low when I resort to canned chickpeas for lunch. Today's lunch was tortilla chips, blueberry Silk yogurt, chickpeas (with some random spices thrown in), cherry tomatoes from the garden, and a mixture of walnuts, chocolate, and Craisins. I had the apple and raisins for snack earlier in the day.

16 days until China!

And we're syndicated

I've been LJ syndicated for a while now I just forgot to post about it. If you are more into LiveJournal than blogger, you can add my blog onto your friends page. Syndication courtesy of supercarrot.

I really need to get back into cooking. School has been keeping me busy and I've been eating pretty badly (as in I've been subsisting on pita bread, cereal, and the occassional pasta). Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things soon.

Salad and an apple

I had a terrible headache and went to sleep really early last night. My mom, being a lovely person, packed me some lunch.

I had a salad with dressing (in the lidded container), an apple, and a fresh pita (not pictured). Store bought pita is often thin, cracked, dry, and not very good. Fresh pita from a good bakery (i.e. in Brooklyn) is amazingly soft and delicious. I especially like the thick ones.

I'm trying to make the best of apple season while it lasts. It's so convenient (not to mention delicious) to be able to drive ten minutes to buy apples fresh from the people who picked them (or to pick them myself). I don't particularly eat apple the rest of the year because a supermarket apple is just gross compared to these beauties. That's sad, I'm so into apples that I see them as beautiful.

Spagetti and puppy chow

Today was another rush around in the morning lunch that resulted in PB sandwich, walnuts, and dried fruit. No pictures but it wasn't too exciting.

I made multi-grain spagetti with a little tomato sauce, steamed broccoli, and Morningstar Farms chick'n strips (they're hiding in the picture) for tomorrow. I'm also taking an apple and some puppy chow



Neither is very photogenic but it's bound to be a delicious day. Puppy chow is basically pure sugar with some fat so there isn't much of a place to go wrong. I decided to bring my spagetti in a different container tomorrow so I could bring a little more of it.

Couscous and fruit

Pineapple, grapes, cucumber, hummus, and some leftover couscous (flavor from a box: toasted pinenuts and spices).

Schoolwork has been leaving me with not much time for cooking, but atleast I'm learning a lot of fun and really cool things (if you forget about calculus and history...)

New Harmony Vegan Chinese Food

I was in Philly today with my dad and we stopped off at New Harmony for vegan Chinese lunch (thanks to Kate at Rabbit Food for the recommendation) . We didn't realize that the portions would be huge so we ordered two things. First was the fried dim sum. I'm not sure my memory is 100% on what was included but I remember 2 spring rolls, 2 breaded shrimp things, 6 pieces of sesame chicken, 2 beef things, a scallion pancake, two taro cakes, and two turnip cakes. Neither of us really like the shrimp (but I never liked seafood and neither of us has ever had real shrimp) but the rest was good. The taro/turnip cakes were a little bland but good with some sauce (we got ginger soy sauce, duck sauce, and sweet and sour sauce).

Then we had a lunch special of General Tso's chicken with wonton soup and brown rice. It was really good and a little spicy. The soup was a little salty for my taste but was also pretty yummy. Overall it was a great experience with lots of leftovers and I would definitely go again. I was going to take leftovers for lunch tomorrow but my family devoured them, I guess I'm left to my own devices to make lunch.

My favorite vegan Chinese is still Veggie Heaven in Parsippany, NJ but New Harmony was pretty close.

Freezing Tofu

Freezing tofu is a very simple process that far too many people seem confused about. It changes the texture of the tofu and makes it absorb flavor much better. It also keeps practically forever which is good if you aren't cooking for too many people or if you don't use tofu very often. To aid the confused people, I made a quick photo tutorial for a lazy person to freeze tofu.


First cut your tofu into serving size chunks. I'm usually only cooking for one or two people so I can get 4-6 pieces per 14 oz container.







Next place each piece in a bag to freeze. You can use fancy ziploc bags but I use sandwich bags because they're cheaper and they work just as well.

Alternately, you could freeze the pieces on a piece of wax or parchment paper.



Tie a knot (or seal) the top of each bag. Since you didn't drain or press the tofu there will be some liquid in the bag, don't worry about it. Put the bags in the freezer.







When your tofu is hard and frozen, it's ready to be used. It naturally changes color when it freezes, the yellow tinge does not indicate spoilage. Rip or cut open the bag. You are now left with a choice between several methods to defrost your tofu.

My preferred method is to microwave the tofu in 1-2 minute increments until it is defrosted (around 3-4 minutes for my size pieces). Be careful, parts of the tofu may be freezing cold while others will be hot enough to burn you.


Other choices for defrosting include leaving your tofu in the refrigerator overnight to defrost or leaving it out on a counter. You can also boil it in water or broth.

After your tofu is defrosted, drain water and press out any excess with a paper towel between your hands. Then slice and cook your tofu as desired.

I've also frozen tofu in bite size pieces/slices but it's just more of a pain for me since I then have to spread them all out on a sheet to freeze so they don't stick.


As a heads up, no lunch on Monday. I have off from school for Columbus Day. I will probably be home doing homework and makeup work all day since I will be missing a week of school when I go to China in less than a month from now!

I'm already thinking about eating vegan in China. It's going to be tough since it's a school organized trip and all the meals are pre-planned and are all Chinese food. My teacher said that they have planned three meat and two vegetable dishes at every meal, but I know a lot of people consider chicken with broccoli to be a vegetable dish. I plan on bringing nuts, dried fruit, crackers, and peanut butter in my suitcase. The hotel we're staying at also supposedly has American and Chinese breakfast, which I'm hoping means that there will be cereal. I'm a fairly adventurous eater when I get the chance so I really will try anything if I think it's vegan.

Chex cereal and books

I was really busy last night and I had no time to pack lunch. That left today's lunch to be thrown together at the last minute this morning. Chex, walnuts, and an apple.

Today I went to New Jersey's largest and oldest rummage sale where I got some lovely books for cheap.


Add these to the books that I got at my local library sale a few weeks ago


and I got a total of 20 books for $9. I love used books sales, and I especially love used books. Now I just have to figure out where to put all the books.

I just finished some crafting for a swap but I'll wait to post pictures until after the person I'm swapping with receives the package. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!

Bagel and quinoa, Salad and fruit

Lunch from yesterday and today:


Toasted whole wheat bagel with hummus, 2 small carrots, leftover quinoa with a few spices, box of raisins. I don't like quinoa all that much but it's okay once in a while. I probably won't have it again soon.



Last night we went to the fruit/veggie store, which led to the making of today's lunch. Cantaloupe, half a grapefruit, and salad (raw kale, yellow pepper, cucumber, walnuts, craisins, dried apricot, salt, black pepper) with no dressing. I love cooked kale but raw isn't half bad.

Apples, PB, pretzels, cookies

Hey, I never claimed to be healthy! I wasn't feeling great this morning and I didn't have much time so I threw together lunch in a bit of a hurry. Pretzels, a few cookies (I made so many of these but they keep practically forever), and an apple with natural PB.