Falafel, samosa, veggies

Today's lunch was rather monochromatic, but still pretty yummy. Premade falafel (from the freezer section) in whole wheat mini pitas, green bell pepper, giant pretzels, a banana, and a homemade apple crumb cake muffin. The muffin is an edited (and dare I say, improved?) version of Isa's recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, which I will hopefully get around to posting in the next few days. If I forget and you're just on the edge of your seat waiting (which I'm sure you all will be) feel free to post a gentle reminder for me.


As Passover draws nearer in my household, though, the food choices continue to get narrower. We basically clear out the entire fridge and as much of the freezer as possible for Passover, so right now we're trying to finish things up. I, of course, am not a big fan of lack of selection, so I went out and picked up a couple samosas and some Indian food for dinner. For those who don't know, a samosa (shown above) is a savory Indian pastry filled with spiced potatoes and peas, wrapped in dough, and usually deep fried. I've made baked ones at home, but they aren't nearly as good as the terrible-for-you fried version. To make up for the unhealthiness of the samosa, I water-sauteed some asparagus and baby carrots with sesame seeds and packed some Cheerios on the side.

Plantains and pretzels

I got off from school today because of the crazy weather so I spent some time cooking. For lunch I made fried plantains, which were just plantains sliced and fried in a little olive oil in a non-stick pan with a little brown sugar.


Later, to make up for my lack of math homework, I made some math oriented pretzels (yea, yea, I'm a big ol' dork) from another easy bread machine recipe. The shapes didn't hold up so well during the whole rising/boiling/baking process, but it was fun anyway.

We've had this recipe for a while. It was photo-copied out of a library book, but I'm not sure which one.

Pretzels
Makes about 8-10 pretzels

2/3 cup water
1 1/4 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1-1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Additionally you will need:
5 cups water
5 teaspoons baking soda
kosher salt or other topping

Add all ingredients from the first ingredient list in order into the bread machine and let it knead and rise in the machine. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Then divide and shape your pretzels. Cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes in a warm place.

In a non-aluminum pan bring 5 cups of water and 5 teaspoons of baking soda almost to a boil. Gently place the pretzels into the water and allow to cook for about 30 seconds on each side. Try not to let the water come to a full boil. Remove the pretzels with a slotted spoon and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt or other desired toppings. Bake at 475°F for 10-12 minutes or until brown.

Preboiling and baking (note the shapes, from left to right, top to bottom: pi, random circle, delta x, infinity, sigma, integral sign, and another infinity):


After baking:

One year vegan-iversary

Today marks my one year anniversary of becoming vegan. It's been a little rough at times, but I'm really glad that I took the plunge. For anyone out there who is toying with the idea of going vegan, go for it! Even if you have to take baby steps, I have faith in you.

Yes, I'll admit it takes a lot of self control to say no thanks to free desserts and late night trips for ice cream or pizza, but there's something just so rewarding about it all. More than even helping the animals and the environment (both of which are huge), I get immense self-gratitude from being vegan. I used to have no self control. I couldn't say no to food when it was offered to me and I would eat and eat and eat and just never stop. Even though I can still probably down a 1 lb bag of Twizzlers (and yes, I have done this in the past), I've gained something personally from this whole journey. Somewhere along the way I've realized that I have more control over my life and myself than I ever thought I could.

Now that I've celebrated my veganism, onto a lunch


Leftover homemade pizza (topped with marinara sauce, mushrooms, spinach, bell pepper, nutritional yeast, Morningstar veggie crumbles), 2 hamentaschen, two little boxes of raisins, pretzels, mango, kiwi, and strawberries.

Normally we don't buy the little packages of pretzels, raisins, etc. because they're wasteful and more expensive, but we received a whole bunch of them in gift bags of food for Purim over the weekend, so they'll probably be showing up a bit over the next few days.

Ramen and veggies

Some people love raw food. Some people even go so far as to switch to a raw food diet. I am not one of those people. I love my cooked things, steamed, fried, or boiled to mushy oblivion. Whatever it is, if it's cooked, it's good with me. If it's hot it's even better. I haven't bought a Thermos yet (honestly, I'm probably to lazy/rushed in the morning to heat something up anyway) so I settle for cold cooked food. Today's lunch was steamed carrots, steamed broccoli, and cold ramen (hey, I'm a student, I'm allowed to eat ramen, even if it is sickeningly unhealthy!) .

Snack of mostly Cheerios with some pretzels, chocolate chips, walnuts, and peanuts. It's mostly Cheerios, it's just that they're at the bottom of the container.

Pizza

Despite less than rave reviews from others, I rather like Tofutti mozerella slices. Today I made a quick pizza with store bought sauce, French bread, and Tofutti slices. I also had peanuts, pretzels, and raisins (hiding next to the peanuts). On the produce front, there were grapes and carrots.