Cashew and Cardomom February 18, 2011

Apparently its ‘cardamom’ not ‘cardamon.’  Who knew?!

Well I didn’t want to say it in the title, because I seem to really over do this particular topic, but these are more cupcakes!  From the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  Do we still underline book titles? Some fellow vegan friends came over and we chose these exotic sounding cupcakes to make.  Easy to throw together with some interesting ingredients.  They did make a thicker batter than most cupcakes.  And I wouldn’t recommend the Whole Foods 365 cashew butter because it isn’t salted and isn’t perfectly smooth.

The reactions:  My guests loved the whole package.  Cupcake and icing and all.  I thought the cupcake was more like a muffin, but agree the frosting was super amazing.  There is a nice orange flavor in the cupcake, but next time I would add more cardomoM. The appearance of these cupcakes is like all the tract homes of Arizona.  Neutral dessert colors.  Light brown clay.  I think this fact adds to my theory of these as muffins.  Iced muffins.  We cooked the muffins at only 325 degrees and for longer than the recipe calls for because we made them big cupcakes.      

See happiness below.  Recipe follows.

Cashew Butter Cardamom Cupcakes (pg 128 in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

1/2 C plus 2 TBSP soy milk or rice milk

1/4 C fresh squeezed orange juice

2 teas ground flaxseed

1/3 C Canola oil

1/3 C plus 1 TBSP granulated sugar

1/3 C Brown Sugar, packed

1/3 C smooth cashew butter

1 C plus 2 TBSP all purpose flour

3/4 teas baking powder

1/2 teas baking soda

1/2 teas salt

1 teas ground cardamom (fresh is best)

1/4 teas ground cinnamon

1 teas finely grated orange zest

 

 

preheat oven 350 degree, mix liquids, mix dry ingredients, whip 2 minutes with mixer and cook for 22 to 24 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

 

 

 

Cashew Butter Frosting we used:

 

 

1/3 C cashew butter

1/4 C  margarine

2 TBSP shortening

1 teas cardamom

3/2 teas vanilla extract

1 and 1/4 powdered sugar

1-2 TBSP rice or soy milk

Matcha January 27, 2011

I really love Matcha.  What is matcha, you ask?  It is green tea powder!  The whole leaf siltified.  It is this bright green, super fine, smooth, powder with a strong green tea flavor and tons of healthy antioxidants.  Yum yum.  You can make drinks with it and feel like a super hero sipping down radioactive green power juice.  (Starbucks has a pretty good matcha green tea frappuccino if you want to try it out.)  You can also bake with it.  Some of my favorite cupcakes are the green tea and almond cupcakes in that most used vegan recipe book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  They are soooo good.  And super moist.  Tonight I had one with green tea ice cream.  Delicious!  But mostly delicious because of the cupcakes and icing.  I actually was not impressed by the ice cream.  I think coconut milk doesn’t make the best base for a vegan ice cream.

Here is the recipe:

1/2 C Soy Yogurt (I usually just make this with some heated vegan milk, cornstarch, and a bit of lemon.)

2/3 C Rice Milk (Or any vegan milk- but rice is the most Japanese to match the matcha)

1/4 teas. Vanilla

1/3 C Canola Oil

1/2 teas. Almond Extract (I usually double this because I love the flavor)

1 1/4 C All purpose Flour

1 teas. Baking Powder

1/4 teas. Baking Soda

3-4 teas. matcha tea powder (I usually add extra of this devine stuff too)

1/4 teas. Salt

3/4 C white sugar

Mix the wet and dry separately and add them together.  Beat just until smooth.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes or so.  Take out when a toothpick comes out clean.

For the (amazing) Green Tea glaze:

2 TBSP vegan margarine

1 C powdered sugar

1/8 to 1/4 teas. matcha tea powder (But I put in about 1 to 1 1/2 teas. for extra yum)

1-2 TBSP rice milk (or any vegan milk)  (I have also used brown rice syrup here.)

1/4 teas. almond extract (I usually put a whole teaspoon in because almond extract is love)

Frost the cupcakes with the goodness and enjoy!

What Do You Eat? October 4, 2010

What do you eat?!  This is the most common question after someone finds out I am vegan for the first time.  Do you survive on tofu and lawn clippings?

I realize that this question comes from the feeling most people have that a vegan diet is some restrictive and/or temporary thing.  They see it as a sacrifice that I am making and constantly suffering for.  Well I am here to tell you that it is a lifestyle and a very liberating one at that!  And it is here to stay.  My whole paradigm on food has changed in the last year or so.  I don’t think in meals of solely meat, eggs, and dairy anymore.  There are so many other options out there.  I don’t think, “well I used to think a real meal was a center of meat and a side of mashed potatoes and veggies so I need to just make substitutions to recreate a want-to-be real meal.”  I don’t crave meat or dairy or eggs.  And now that I have gotten rid of the butter, milk, and cheese on top of everything, I can appreciate the rich and varied flavors of spices, herbs, whole grains, and vegetables.  Everything is so fresh!

There are a lot of vegetables and grains out there that I hadn’t tried before a year ago.  There are combinations I had never imagined.  Before becoming a vegan, my diet was pretty small in sphere.  Wheat, a few staple vegetables, and a lot of dairy.  That is where I was.  Now I have a whole lot more color in my food.  There is more to life than smothering everything in dairy!  My options for eating have actually widened greatly since becoming a vegan.  And my health is rewarded for the nutritious variety.  There are so many other foods to eat and becoming vegan lets you see past the animal products to all the other options out there.  Its a great big world of vegan food!

And yes I do like tofu in many of it various forms.  If you didn’t like it, it is probably because whoever prepared it for you didn’t know what they were doing and didn’t care much because cooking meat was really their main job.

Greek Philosophy September 29, 2010

I was looking for some other information online and came across Wikipedia’s vegetarian entry.  In part of it Greek Philosophy is discussed.  I never knew the ancient Greeks were veggies.  Kind of interesting.  Here is that section from Wikipedia:

“Ancient Greek philosophy has a long tradition of vegetarianism. Pythagoras was reportedly vegetarian (and studied at Mt. Carmel, where some historians say there was a vegetarian community), as his followers were expected to be. Socrates was reportedly vegetarian, and in his dialogue of what people, or at least Philosopher-rulers, in an ideal republic should eat, he described only vegetarian food. He specified that if meat-eating was allowed, then society would require more doctors.^[146]

Roman writer Ovid concluded his magnum opus Metamorphoses, in part, with the impassioned argument (uttered by the character of Pythagoras) that in order for humanity to change, or metamorphose, into a better, more harmonious species, it must strive towards more humane tendencies. He cited vegetarianism as the crucial decision in this metamorphosis, explaining his belief that human life and animal life are so entwined that to kill an animal is virtually the same as killing a fellow human.

Everything changes; nothing dies; the soul roams to and fro, now here, now there, and takes what frame it will, passing from beast to man, from our own form to beast and never dies…Therefore lest appetite and greed destroy the bonds of love and duty, heed my message! Abstain! Never by slaughter dispossess souls that are kin and nourish blood with blood![“

Copy Cat Deliciousness September 25, 2010

Pita Jungle has this amazing dish.  (Not all their dishes are amazing BTW, but a few are…)  I don’t know why, but the Pita Jungle peeps put this amazing dish on the side items list!  Its like they don’t want you to know it is there.  So basically it is some cauliflower fried to crispy garlicky brownness and covered in onion strings, pine nuts, and this sauce that will change your life!  The sauce is amazing and now that I know how to make it, I have been putting it on top of everything.  I would eat an old shoe if it had this sauce on top!  The sauce is very basic.  It is tahini, some water for thinning, and sriracha (the hot chili sauce.)  The ratio might be something like 4 tahinis, 1 water, and 1 sriracha give or take a bit.  Thats it for entrance into food heaven!  Here are some pics to salivate over.  In the pics I was trying to make the cauliflower healthy and steamed, but in fact the fried cauliflower is better! And since I have been putting the sauce on everything, I made pitas with tomatoes and cucumbers and gardein chicken breast fakes and put the sauce all over that delish combo too.  Try it.  I have already been through 1 jar of tahini this week.

Loving Hut September 19, 2010

There is this all vegan restaurant nearby.  An all vegan restaurant with a few twists.  Loving Hut.  You might need to just visit the place and google “Supreme Master ching Hai” to understand the ambience that comes with this place.  I find it very peaceful, clean, and light.  And I am always fascinated by (um) the culture that leads to a place like this based on a philosophy like that.  (Very mysterious, I know.)  The people who work there are always very gracious and full of service.  You can check wikipedia if you want the mystery info, I want to talk about the food!  This place is set up like a common Chinese of Taiwanese health restaurant.  It is not expensive.  It is fairly casual but clean and open.  The menu’s have pictures and very Asian names.   Everything seems like it was translated directly from Chinese.  And it is all based on the idea that this food is healthy and cleansing.  See when someone in China wants to go out for something healthy and healing (maybe the equivalent of tyring to eat all local or organic) they eat vegan!  This idea is pretty lost on Americans, but it makes perfect sense in Asia.  So with that understanding you can better prepare for what Loving Hut is all about.  This place is interesting, and a field trip worth taking.  And the food is all good!  At least everything I have had was great.  The portions are more appropriately sized and you won’t be spending over 7 dollars for any entree.  I suggest it.  Here are some pics from our recent trip.  (This group was all carnivores (sans myself) and all enjoyed it immensely.  In fact the eating location was suggested and chosen by non-veg friends who love this place.)  There are Loving Huts all over the world so I hope you get to try one soon.

Eating Animals August 6, 2010

I have mentioned the book, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer a few different places on this blog.  It really is a great book.  Informative, shocking, well researched, and somehow entertaining (or at least really well written.)  It has a great voice.  I really grew to like the author while reading and it was informative- even to me who thought I already knew all there was to know about animal treatment.  Anyhow….. a friend just finished reading the book and sent me an email of some highlights.  These are things she found important or interesting from the book.  Read on.  And then go get the book and read the whole thing.

“Eating Animals

Cruelty-

not only the willful causing of unnecessary suffering, but the indifference to it.

Depends on an understanding of cruelty, and the ability to choose against it. Or choose to ignore it.

The power brokers of factory farming know that their business model depends on consumers not being able to see what they do.

When we walk around thinking we have a greater right to eat an animal than the animal has a right to live without suffering, it’s corrupting.

The animals have paid the price for our desire to have everything available at all times for very little money.

Isn’t it strange how upset people get about a few dozen baseball players taking growth hormones, when we’re doing what we’re doing to animals and feeding them to our children?

Americans eat 150 times as many chickens as we did 80 years ago.

The highest rates of osteoporosis are seen in countries where people consume the most dairy foods.

Farmed animals in the US produce 130 times as much waste as the human population.

In the world of factory farming, expectations are turned upside down. Veterinarians don’t work toward optimal healrh, but optimal profitability. Drugs are not for curing diseases, but substitutes for destroyed immune systems. Farmers do not aim to produce healthy animals.

Roughly 4.5 million sea animals are killed as bycatch in longline fishing every year, including roughly 3.3 million sharks, 60,000 sea turtles, and 20,000 dolphins and whales.

I’ve left a mental state of constant personal decision making about eating animals for a steady commitment not to.

Less than 1% of animals killed for meat come from family farms.

Other animals have the same five senses that we do. And more and more, we’re learning that they have behavioral, psychological, and emotional needs that evolution created in them just like it did in us.

Today’s social conservatives are yesterday’s extremists on issues like women’s rights, civil rights, children’s rights, and so on.

Millions upon millions of advertising dollars are spent simply to make sure that we see people drinking milk or eating beef in movies.

Suppress conscience in favor of craving.”

Cakes and Cupcakes! July 31, 2010

It was my roommate’s birthday today.  Tried out some new cakes and cupcakes and got great reviews!  No one even knew they were vegan.  Except one friend who asked.  They were quite tasty!

It was also my brother’s white coat ceremony for medical school.  It is the start of a long, hard school road… so they do this graduation like ceremony for the beginning of school.  I got to see my wee baby so I was happy.  Many pics of her to follow 🙂

So the cakes!  I gave Brittany a flavor survey with many options in cakes, fillings, and frostings.  From her answers I decided to make a vanilla three layer cake with a strawberry filling and lemon buttercream frosting.  Yummers.  Key is fresh lemon juice and fresh strawberries.  I also made red velvet cupcakes with a twist on the traditional cream cheese frosting.  This was cinnamon cream cheese frosting.  Very delectable.  The chocolate extract I took time hunting down was amazing in this recipe.

For the cake building, I learned a few tricks.  The first is to put a thin layer of frosting down before filling so that the filling doesn’t soak into the cake too much.  Second, a ring of frosting around the edge of each layer will keep the filling trapped in.  Both of these tricks worked quite well.  The cake even made a long drive to east mesa without too much damage, though it did have a lean upon arrival.

And these vegan cake recipes are moist and delicious.  Both had such a great crumb!  All of the recipes (minus variations like cinnamon and created fillings of strawberries) came from my favorite cupcake book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World!  I just took cupcake recipes and made one batch for each layer of the 8 inch round cake.  I was a bit worried to try this, but it worked great.

Jason’s white coat ceremony and adorable wee baby!

Hawaii! July 12, 2010

First off, THANKS GRANDMA!  What an awesome trip!

This is going to be a super long post.  Sorry.  I tried to post from Hawaii but it just wasn’t happening.  It was a fanciful $0.75 a freaken minute to use the internet on the ship and I wasn’t about to try and write a post on the fancy little internet capable phones that drive me crazy.  So sorry it is long and there will probably be some details missing….. I am sure you are deeply upset.  (You can just skip through to the pics at the end if you like.)

Where to start?  Hawaii is such a great place.  A magical place.  There are so many sides of it I love.  I love its nature worship side.  I love the nature.  I love its Asianess and the mixing of all sorts of cultures.  I love the hula spirit that permeates the air because I fancy myself an amateur hula dancing.  (Hula dancing is so fun.)  Hawaii is a great place.  And it is far enough away (both physically and culturally) that you can almost feel like you are going on this exotic adventure to a foreign land…. but you are still safely in America.    Its a good baby step for want to be world travelers.  Or anyone who likes beautiful beaches and dense tropical jungles.

Day one of trip (Wednesday the 23rd)

Today starts (at 1200 am) with me still at work.  When I got home from work, I had to pack.  I know, excellent preparation.  I packed and packed almost all night.  Packing for a cruise is hard because there are so many different sorts of venues to dress for.  Packing done, I had to shower and get ready for my 5 am departure to the airport.  Whoever bought those early departure tickets should be punished.  I was tired.  Jason and Jena hadn’t gotten much more sleep.  But of course wee baby Evra didn’t care that we were tired.  I have learned that it does in fact take 3 adults to travel with one infant.  Evra comes with an entourage of stuff!  But she is well worth it.  There were a couple of small hiccups in our travel day to Oahu.  In my drunken stayed-up-all-night haze, I forgot my passport.  I was especially disappointed about this because I had just bought a new adorable passport cover.  And I just love using my passport for anything.  Oh well- its not like I would have gotten a stamp.  There was the standard wait on the plane for 45 extra minutes because you pre boarded with an infant.  (I think they should put kids on last- by the time they wait 45 minutes their patience is up and they want off!)  There was the frantic water chug as you realize, seconds from the the x-ray machine, that you must drink this whole liter bottle of water before going through security if you want an empty bottle to refill on the other side.  Then there were a few more unique hiccups to our travel.  There was a 5 minute circular conversation with a luggage check attendant.  “Your screen says checking one bag is free, why are you going to charge me $25 dollars?”  “It is free.  It gets more expensive if you have more bags or bigger bags.”  “But free isn’t $25 dollars.”  “Yes it is $25.  But it gets more expensive if you have bigger bags or more bags.”  That went on for a while…. apparently to Hawaiian Airlines, $25 is free.  If this new meaning catches on you better watch those ‘free’ samples at Costco.  And refills on your beverage could get very pricey.  So anyhow, she was weird…. Hawaiian Airlines has another weird employee.  He is a testosterone filled authority hungry flight attendant.  He actually yelled, “do you speak English” up the isle at me (on an international flight that was continuing on to the Philippines) because I stood up to try and get Evra consoled while the seat belt sign was on.  Lets face it, that sign is almost always on and people get up to go to the bathroom whenever they feel like it.  Anyhow, Jena and him had some words.  And from these words I learned that our particular plane was flying at 30,000 feet at 500 miles per hour.  Who knew?!  I thought it was a magic time machine capsule you sit in for a few hours and think your way to Hawaii.  He ended with a warning that this was our last warning…. we wondered if we should start building parachutes from the plane blankets in case we angered him again and he threw us out.  I am still very curious what happens after your last warning.   After a bit of craziness, we arrived in Honolulu.  All worth it.  We were off to find adventure and explore.

Honolulu is a great city.  It is a tropical big city in paradise.  A mixing of many cultures.  And the most commercialized place in Hawaii.  So I wouldn’t recommend it be the only place you go if you want to feel the Aloha spirit (guess they got to me with all their oogabooga Hawaiian spirit stuff.)  I am always surprised by how Japanese it is.  Japanese signs, people, food- even the convenience stores are stocked with Japanese snacks and drinks.  I love it!  Makes me want to continue on to Japan.

And that was day one.  I better start writing less detail about each day….

Day 2:  Even though I was dead tired (see day 1) I had the FOMO, so I was up early with everyone else.  I can sleep when I am dead!  And Fear of Missing Out could kill me if I don’t wake up and participate in all activities.  Breakfast at the hotel was from 6:30-8:30- early because they are hoping the time will deter you and they won’t actually have to feed you.  Well it worked on me and I skipped breakfast.  Who eats that early?!  Then we were off to the North Shore to snorkel at Shark’s Cove and go to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  The North Shore has a very different vibe from Honolulu.  It is so Jack Johnson up there.  I love it.  The snorkeling was good.  Saw some sea turtles.  Swimming with sea turtles is like swimming with a prehistoric dinosaurs (redundant I guess because all dinosaurs are prehistoric.)  Sea turtles are just so interesting to look at.  They are like archaic pieces of living natural history.  And so alien.  We also saw cuddlefish.  I have never seen cuddlefish diving or snorkeling so that was really cool.  They are a top fave for me.  All crazy looking, swimming backwards and jig jagging around in such weird angles.  And they change colors so quickly.  They are so cool.  They also have green blood.  And when they look at you, you know they are smarter than you.  Same with octopi.  Cool creatures!  We also saw many wrasses- who can change sex when the situation calls for it- and tons of colorful parrotfish and butterfly fish.  So it was a good snorkel day.

Next was some lunch at a roadside cafe, a superglue surgical procedure on my cut foot, and some surfing lessons.  Then on to the PCC.

The PCC was nice.  Really the best part of the PCC (by far) is the night show.  It is so good!  I realize that I like Polynesian dancing more than some, but the PCC’s dancing is really so authentic and good.  I saw a lot of dancers on this trip- many are just posers and don’t really have the skills!  The PCC has great dancers.  It was a cool show.  I will say that I found their buffet lacking.  I mean it is impossible for a vegetarian to eat a real meal at the PCC buffet- and this place is run by Mormons.  Come on!  But the dancing was great and I enjoyed all the exhibits I saw.

Day 3 (Friday)

I believe I slept in a bit because my family was going to play beach volleyball and I don’t play volleyball (beach or otherwise.)  I got up and went for a peaceful people watching stroll along the beachfront.  I ended up out on the pier sitting with my feet over the edge eating an apple and watching the boogie boarders careen toward the wall I was sitting on only to veer left or right just before impact.  It was a good show.  I very much enjoyed my sitting time.  Then we went to lunch in a hurry because we needed to meet our scuba boat.  We went to cheeseburger in paradise and this is where my problems began.  I had decided I might be a little lax and try a non-vegan taste or two on the trip.  But that quickly snowballed downhill and by the end of the cruise I was eating all you can eat soft serve with the rest of the family.  Its a slippery slope folks.  And I will have you know that I paid dearly for it.  I got so congested and uhum nasty feeling (for lack of more detail) from the reintroduction of these dairy products.  Even now, I am sipping tea and trying to clear my sinuses.  I even got a mystery eye condition of some sort that is quickly clearing up now that I am back to vegan.  Anyhow, I paid.  Where was I?  Oh yes, Cheeseburger in paradise was the beginning of the end.  At this point I was still trying to be good.  I ordered the veggie burger with guacamole on it.  Well it came with cheese!  (Cheeseburger in Paradise- I should have known.)  So I decided that cheese was either going to be thrown away or eaten, but the cow had already suffered either way and I was on vacation!  Bring on the saturated fat!  And fatty it did taste.  But it was a tasty little burger!  I felt a little queasy but very satisfied when leaving.  So off to scuba dive.  Captain Bob (I think) or Bruce?  Some Captain somebody took us scuba diving.  The service was awesome.  They were a great crew.  I was so nauseous.  In the boat, out of the boat, it didn’t matter.  Usually I get seasick when the boat is just rocking in the swells but I can just quickly get in the water and the nausea is over.  Not so this time.  I really think it was a combo of full stomach and the compression/ decompression that happens to all your air cavities when you scuba dive.  I threw up on both of those dives that day.  A little miserable, but it attracted some nice fish.  And I have finally settled it for myself that you can in fact throw up through a regulator underwater and then continue to breathe.  They weren’t messing around when they designed regulators.  So I am sure the dive was beautiful, but it was mostly lost on me.  Everyone else had a good time.  My dad and uncle Chad also got pretty nauseous (the other two main eaters of Paradise’s cheeseburgers….)     A few days later we dove again off of Lanai.  I didn’t eat breakfast, took meclyzine, pepcid, and chewed some tums just before decent and had two great dives!  They were so cool.  So that is my new system for diving I guess.

Seriously those dives were so neat.  We were swimming under and over and through archways.  We went into this underwater ‘cathedral’ like Little Mermaid’s cave.  It was totally incredible.  I somehow managed to miss the dozens of eels my family saw all over Hawaii.  I didn’t see one all trip.  But I did see a crown of thorns starfish (I thought that was pretty cool,) many turtles, some nudibranchs, and pretty fish.  My favorite was this school of yellow fish of some unidentified species.  I swam through them and they just parted and enclosed me.  I felt like a mermaid.  Fun fun.  Scuba diving and being weightless and being able to go up or down right side up or upside down is so neat.  That floating underwater feeling is the best.  And looking at all the bubbles rising to the surface is also hypnotic.  A plug for scuba diving.

Day 4 (Saturday)

This is the day we got on the ship, but we had to pack something in to the morning for sure.  We went for Maunawili Falls.  Amazing.  You hike a somewhat slippery muddy hike to this waterfall oasis in the forest.  It was so green and wet and misty.  And you can cliff jump!  It was a really cool place.  I am sure pictures won’t do it justice.  The walls of this place, with their moss and bryophytes and ferns all over, are what I want in my house someday- a living wall of water plants…. I’m just saying.  Also at the magical falls are little fish that will clean your feet if you hold still.  I only got 3 bites total but it was a fun experiment.  Apparently I don’t have enough dead skin on my feet.

In the afternoon, we got on the cruise ship.   And we went straight to the buffet to begin the cyclical ritual of eating too much and then hating yourself only to eat too much again in a few hours.  This went on for days….  We were at the mercy of Norwegian hospitality!  Things are good on a cruise.  You play all day, get back on the ship and are entertained all night.  It really is a good time.  And a very busy time.  You often need a vacation from your vacation after a cruise- which is why I am glad I don’t have work for two more days.

NCL is the only cruise line that cruises just the Hawaiian Islands.  So it was our only option.  But it is not our favorite cruise line.  Snobbish as it may sound, they do not do near as great a cruise as others we have been on.  Royal Caribbean is the best.  Anyhow, thought I would throw that in.  THey have some issues…. but it was still an amazing vacation and I have nothing to complain about.

Today was also the day I gave up on voodoo dolls.  Last time I was in Hawaii (about 2 years ago) these little funny Japanese voodoo dolls were everywhere.  I love them and want more- and I promised a friend I would bring her one.  I searched high and low all over waikiki.  They were no where.  I even asked around and eventually got the number of a supplier of the voodoo.  Said supplier said I could come by and buy all I wanted.  When I went to go to the Honolulu World Trade Center were the supplier was, he wasn’t there!  So I had to give up.  I died a little inside.  I continued to look on every island in every ABC store, but my heart wasn’t in it.  I had no hope.  So sorry Annie, we have no voodoo dolls.  That ship has sailed.

Sunday on the ship

After a lovely night’s sleep (I love sleeping in the belly of a ship in a pitch black room because we poor things don’t get a room with a window- you’ll never have better sleep) we were docked at Maui.  We got off the ship, got some cars (a major process at each port) and were off to Ka’anapali beach where there is a big black rock, some cliff jumping, and lots of sea turtles.  Saw the biggest turtle of my life and followed him around for a while.  He was soooo neat.  Then we went open air jeeping style (loved it) to Lahaina to go to the giant Banyan tree park.  This is a park that is covered completely by one tree with various roots sticking down.  It is like an Avatar tree and just as fun to climb.  We climbed all over it and took pictures with the “no climbing” signs.  The locals were doing it….. It was a great day.

This is the evening my life was changed by the discovery of the crepe man.  Any filling, any topping, delicious crepes made to order!  Amazing.  Banana filled crepe with coconut sauce and caramel became a staple for me at this point.  I am sure this helped me toward my cruise goal of gaining 7-14 pounds.  (We read somewhere that that was the average weight gain.  Luckily I didn’t gain quite that much…)   I am having crepe withdrawls.

Monday on Maui

This was the day of the second dive trip.  Two amazing dives.  And I just love cruising out at sea sitting on the bow of the boat in the sun.  Is there anything better?  Cruising as in moving forward…. when we stop the sick starts up again.  At some point during these dives I ran into some coral of some sort.  I remember thinking, “that’s going to leave a mark.”  I still have the wound to prove it and I thought that was pretty cool until my roommate has informed me that it looks like ringworm.  Awesome.

Tuesday on Hilo side Big Island

I love Hilo.  It is so small town and jungley.  It gets a lot of rain.  It is so beautiful and there is so much green.  And there is this perpetual mist in the air.  It is really neat.  Hilo has all sorts of neat things tucked away in its secret jungle places.  We went back to the lava tubes of last trip.  Lava tube caves that go on forever and have roots hanging down and water dripping down from the ceiling.  We went to Rainbow falls.  We went to the steam sauna caves- these natural outlets of hot steam from Pele’s belly.  You just have to know where to look for them (thank you Lonely Planet and hand drawn Taco Bell napkin maps) as they are a pull out on the side of the road “near mile marker 15” and “just start looking through the underbrush.”  Really neat.  Very hot and mysterious.  Next was the town of Kalapana which was paved over by lava in 1990.  It is a lava field now with a beautiful black sand beach forming at the far end.  I love black sand beaches.  Maybe more than white sand beaches.  The water looks so angry and beautiful with black sand underneath.  Anyhow, it was neat to see what lava can do so quickly.  It was said to have buried 100 houses or so.  Crazy.  Get out of the way for lava!  Then we went back to Isaac Hale State Beach park which is this neat beach with beautiful black rock and big waves.  You can swim or surf there.  A few feet inland from the beach is a natural hot spring pool.  It is just so beautiful.  It is one of the many places in Hawaii that makes you think that you couldn’t design a more magical place.  We met a hippie in the pool that told us about leaving society and moving to this happy place.  He also said grandma in place of the word earth.  As in, “we need to stop punching holes in grandma.”  I just wonder why it is grandma and not mother.  I thought mother earth was more traditionally correct.  He had a feather in his hair and he was really groovey.  From the hot springs we followed our Taco Bell napkin map back past Lava Trees National (or State?) Park but didn’t have time to stop.  That is a neat place though.  Highly recommended.  Back on board we had a night of entertainment with a great comedian.  I discovered another curious coral injury on my leg (that is still with me) and we got to sail by the coast between Kona and Hilo and watch the lava surging down the mountain (well volcano really) in the darkness.  Last trip we could see it running into the sea and causing all sorts of havoc but this time the glowing orange lava was higher up and flowing slower so it didn’t make it to the sea while still red.  Still a really amazing site to see.  We were informed by the soothing hypnotic voice narrating the lava viewing coast that another island is being formed underwater today further down the archipelago line from the Big Island.  It already has a name and its birth into the above sea world is expected sometime in the next few centuries.  Amazing this lava.  Also amazing are the stars while out at sea if you can find a dark place on the deck.  I love just walking the lido deck and watching the sea at night.

Wednesday in Kona, Big Island

A truly magical day!  This is the day I fulfilled a childhood dream.  My life is now complete.  I can die happily at any time.  I swam with dolphins!  In the wild!  We set off from the ship to this beach we had snorkeled at last year.  It is a great snorkeling location.  As we were pulling up, we spotted the first spinner dolphin doing a spin to welcome us!  We watched and saw many dolphins.  I was frantic to get out there with the dolphins.  They were a ways from shore and I didn’t want them to leave because those stupid other snorkelers to scare them off!  I think I exited the vehicle while it was still moving.  I gave up Evra willingly for the first time ever and ran to the dolphins.  There was a painful pause as I tried to frenetically apply sunscreen and then give it a total of 30 seconds to set in.  Then I was running over the painful rocks, quickly into the coldish water, and off to the dolphins.  Turns out I didn’t need to hurry.  They were there all day.  There were about 40 dolphins that I could count at any given time.  I believe they were sleeping.  Their swimming pattern remained pretty standard and steady and they were linked in groups of two and three.  They didn’t even seem to notice if they were cruising right towards you.  You had to move!  This was totally amazing to be watching them, surrounded by them, and within 2 feet of them at times.  I never touched them of course, but I did let them swim right by me.  My favorite is how when they break the surface to breathe their eyes swirl around like, “what is this other place?”  Sometimes they look right at you.  Such neat animals!  Where they were it was about 60 feet deep and it was just clear blue ocean.  (With a few large fish following them around and eating their poop….)  It was beautiful.  My favorite dolphin was one I will call Kelpy!  I think he was some adolescent awake while everyone else was trying to sleep.  He was obsessed with this piece of kelp.  He was carrying it around on his right flipper like a purse.  When it would fall off, he would invariably break formation and circle around to pick it up again.  Hilarious!  Miss you little Kelpy!

The rest of the area had excellent snorkeling as well.  It was a beautiful, amazing day.  Our next stop was a white sand beach.  I don’t know the real name, but this was your standard idyllic beach.  I had been looking forward to waves so I jumped right in and got slammed.  Twice. I know how to swim in big waves and not get killed, but these waves were a bit tricky.  I am not sure why.  I think it was the quick up slope of the beach.  I tried to body surf in on the first gentle looking wave and got slammed and rolled in the sand.  At least is was sand.  I recovered nicely from this, I thought.  Swimsuit check, all in place, nothing up the nose, good to go.  Then the second wave hit.  I didn’t even see it coming.  And I was standing in about 6 inches of water at this point.  I had nothing in the lungs so seawater was forced down my nose.  It burns!  After that, no more body surfing, but I did enjoy the waves and wished to steal a boogey board from one of the local kids.  After a while I gave up swimming and went to take my turn with Evra and guarding the belongings on the beach.  While working my hardest to entertain Evra (she is quite spoiled at this point and knows when you aren’t working hard enough for her happiness,) I overheard some nearby locals.  I couldn’t understand a lot of what they were saying, first interesting thing, and what I did understand was that the adorable little girls had to get out of the water, put their hula skirts on, and go to hula class.  Second interesting thing.  I guess Hawaiian culture does live on!  They were top favorites for me on the beach that day.

Thursday, Kaua’i

Two days at port in Kuau’i!  This is such a cool island.  It is like a playland for the gods.  It is mostly untouched, pristine, jungle paradise surrounded by awe inspiring beaches.  I love it.  I love the feeling of remoteness and isolation. If I ever stayed in Kuau’i for more than a few days I would probably go native and there would be no going back.

Today’s get up, slather on a gallon of sunscreen, eat breakfast, pack a secret lunch from the breakfast buffet, get off the ship, get to the rental cars, and get on our way procedures seemed to take an exceptionally long amount of time.  But alas we were on our way to the Na Pali coast (or Na’ Apali to some.)  You have to drive most of the way around the island from the ship’s port to the beginning of the Na Pali coast where the road ends.  Here there are chickens (magestic birds) roaming freely and taro fields (or as my dad said, “pot plants with taro leaves taped on the top.”)  It is an amazing drive seeing sights like those seen in the beginning of the Jurassic Park movies.  You drive through the town of Hanalei (from Puff the Magic Dragon Lives by the Sea….)  Its a dreamy place.  Things are slow and you feel secluded from the outside world (if not by thousands of miles of ocean then by the magic in the air.)   Once we arrived at the end of the road we began our hike along the Na Pali coast.  We had an ambitious plan to hike up to the ridge, then along the ridge, then back down to a secluded beach, and then back into a ravine to a huge waterfall.  It was a hard hike for me but it was all worth it.  (Although a helicopter pick up from the waterfall would have been nice.)  Incidently helicopter is the only way in or out if you did need a ride and even a helicopter would have a really hard time rescuing you in many places.  The views were amazing.  The Na’apali coast is so rugged and formidable.  It is just a huge wall of rock with a few beaching points here and there.  The sea here is restless and the waves are large.  As you arrive at the beach, you are informed that 83 people have died swimming here and that you should in no way get near the water.  This turned out to be our favorite swimming beach!  (I guess it is probably much more dangerous in the winter when the bigger waves come.)  You couldn’t design a better beach as far as I was concerned.  It had caves for protection if you were marooned here.  It had a fresh water stream with tiny fish to rinse the salt water off in.  The beach was all white sand so no coral or rocks to hurt you in the waves.  And the waves were just perfect- perfectly big and turquoise!  Perfect.  Did I say perfect?

After a few hours, Sarah, Calvin, and I left for the waterfall.  The trail there was jungle shrouded and muddy.  It started right by the ancient port-o-potties left by Dharma Initiative.  We crossed back and forth over the river many times (me three more times than most as I got lost for about twenty minutes before realizing my error with the help of a stone wall in my path.)  The waterfall was immense.  It was a huge black rock wall rising out of the ravine with tons of water falling over the wall into a giant dark pool.  You felt enclosed because the ravine was so tall all the way around you.  The black rock had green plants and moss growing all over it.  It was huge and wonderful!  We couldn’t stay long because we now had 4 miles to hike and it was getting close to sundown.  The hike out was beautiful I am sure, but I was ready to be done.  I love being in nature but I don’t love fighting nature…. I would be content to just sit there for a few hours.  Or build a house and live there.  Of course I wouldn’t want to build the house, but maybe someone else would come out of the jungle and build it for me.  Sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale.  I digress.  So we got out.  No twisted ankles (a feat in my family!) and everyone in good, but tired, spirits.  A great day.  Once back on board we went to the Cadillac Cafe.  So many deep fried foods on that menu and I think we enjoyed 3 of each each.

Day two in Kuau’i we went to a Kipu Falls which is a waterfall with a rope swing.  2 years ago it was a bit more secretive, but now it seems to be on the tour track.  So we went early to avoid the crowds.  I love early mornings.  It is a quick walk through some very tall grass and then a waterfall wonderland appears before you.  My kind of hike!  You can cliff dive or rope swing, but the only way into the water is a fall!  This makes it exciting.  It was a good time and as we were leaving some scuba divers were headed into the water.  I, quite frankly, would be terrified to scuba in that water.  It has a 6 inch visibility as far as I could tell.  And it looks like the waterfall in Lost where they find the dead body.  Yuck.  I wonder what they were after.  We had to be back on board early this day to sail by the Na Pali coast and head back to Honolulu.  I was wiped out from a week of go-go-go so I was very happy to take some down time by the pool on the ship.  I sat by all the sun worshippers (apparently not all people know that pale white is the new tan) and, while wearing my 85 SPF sunblock, I painted my nails and enjoyed the sun.  It was a relaxing afternoon with great views of the coast.  A double rainbow even graced our view of the coast.  Magnification!

We had some last cruise entertainment that evening and the next day was travel day.  Moving 40 people from ship, to beach, to hotel, to airport is no easy task so I was happy to leave a bit earlier with Jason, Jena, and Evra and miss the fray that would be check in and transit through the airport with one extended family!

It was a great vacation!  I couldn’t ask for more!  And I am very happy to be back in my seemingly large apartment with ginormous bathroom!  I can shave in the shower again!  It is a dream.  Bring on the post cruise diet.

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Happiness June 21, 2010

Happiness is 3 kinds of ice cream, watching the sunset, _(three syllable word)____ too.  This is what comes to mind when I think about happiness.  It is a bubble gummy song that I was forced to sing in elementary school at some point in my hazy childhood. It lists off a bunch of enjoyable things (that I obviously can’t remember too well) and calls them happiness.  I remember thinking, even with my infantile brain, that this song was ridiculous and untrue.  I remember thinking there must be more….

Nice little intro for a deep thought provoking article on happiness right?  Well you probably won’t get that depth from me right now, but I can recommend a book if you crave the depth.

I have just finished this great book generously given to me on my birthday (thank you Kelly.)  The book reports on the findings and conclusions of the study of happiness.  Don’t laugh.  It is a real study and at some universities you can become a Happiologist.  This book was wonderful.  This guy, an NPR reporter, travels the globe trying to figure out what various cultures consider happiness and what would make himself more happy.  The book is called The Geography of Bliss and the writer is Eric Weiner- ironic name for a guy studying happiness.

The book is very witty, entertaining, and insightful.  It’s also very informative.  I learned a lot about happiness.  And cultures.  Did you know that money doesn’t (after a certain threshold) make people happier?   A trip to Qatar proves this.  Did you know that a belief in reincarnation can make you happier?  Or that women who get breast augmentation always report higher levels of happiness many years after the procedure?  Did you know that Moldova is mostly unhappy because Moldovans compare themselves to others that have more?  Did you know that a country called Moldova exists?  Moldova was his unhappy place- used as a scientific baseline of sorts.  I learned that babies smile 400 times a day while adults only smile 17 times.  I also learned many new words (very impressive vocabulary this guy has.  Makes me like him more.)  Because of this book I now have an almost irrepressible desire to go to Iceland!  I want to go in the winter, with all the cozy darkness.

In the end, it is the relationships in life, with a sprinkling of hopeful optimism, that make for a happy life.  Duh!  But how this conclusion was reaches was still a very interesting read.  I highly recommend it to all.

I am off on a nautical adventure shortly.  I am going to Hawaii for a few days on Oahu and then a cruise to the major islands.  I am thinking this vacay will make me very happy (although the book teaches me that this happiness will be short lived and may be followed by a trough of somberness.)  I am still willing to go on the trip though:)

My whole mom’s side of the family are going- except for the unfortunate few out on their missions right now.  Sorry Dallin!  It should be a great time.  If I go out on a 3 hour tour and get lost on some unknown island, don’t look too hard for me!  I will update the blog with pictures- even if I have to use an invented coconut phone for internet access.  Don’t be envious of my trip though- envy is one of the main thing that makes unhappy countries unhappy.

Bon Voyage (to me, not you)

Knives! June 13, 2010

I promise to upload something deep, inspiring, thought provoking, insightful, and meaningful very very soon.  In the meantime, look at my new cool knives!  I have wanted these suckers for a long time.  They are so cool, and Japanese, and colorful!  And oh so sharp.  Sometimes I forget that because they look like toys.  Not toys.  Sharp food murdering objects.  (I only murder vegetables.)

They are Komachi knives!  Come to my house and I will cut you something!

Cookies!

I made these cookies for a work thang.  They were delish! People liked them.  And I liked to pretend they were healthy because of ingredients like walnuts, oatmeal, and coconut. I love the little cookie cookbook that gave me this recipe.  And I, in my normal lazy fashion, will just upload pics of the book and recipe to cover the citing logistics.  Yummy stuff here people.

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

You’d probably have to have go go gadget eyes to be able to really read that recipe.  If anyone is really interested I could take the time to write it out for you….

I may have eaten quite a bit of that before it ever made it to the cookie stage.  At least it was salmonella free.

Finuto!

Polenta May 31, 2010

I see Polenta every time I go to Sprouts.  There it is, this tube of weird textured yellowness, next to the noodles that I understand and love.  So I decided to try it.  I like it!  It is basically boiled cornmeal with flavorings.  I tried microwaving it as the instructions suggested.  Then I tried frying it.  (By frying I mean spraying a frying pan with spray on oil and cooking it until it has a crispy browned outsides.)  Frying was delicious!  I then added these fried bits to a basic whole wheat noodles, veggies, and tomato sauce dish I was making.  Polenta is tasty when fried and in marinara sauce!   Next time I might skip the noodles and make tons of polenta, veggies, and sauce.  It is really good.  Why have I never been introduced to this before?

Weird tube shaped polenta:

First try (the microwaved version:)

Frying it up (the noodle dish is in the background:)

Tasty little meal:)

New Furniture!

I have purchased some furniture!  This is sort of a big deal.  I am always saying that I don’t want furniture because I want to be able to move about freely- even overseas.  But alas we needed somewhere to sit.  Once I decided to take responsibility for getting something to sit on, I quickly decided I had to do the job right!  Which meant shopping!  And spending more money than I should be spending right now….  But I am very pleased with the result.

And then I caved and added the painting print I have been salivating over every time I go to World Market.

We now have a tv, couches, and a table.  Everything we could need to entertain so visitors are now encouraged and welcome!  We might even turn on the A/C for you!

Green Smoothies

I eat some version of a green smoothie on almost every normal day.  What I mean by normal is when I am following my normal routine.  Not on vacation or staying at someone’s house or something like that!  I love it!  And it makes me feel great.  I put different things in it all the time.  Bananas make a great frothy smooth base.  I buy them by the bunches and freeze them in bags (unpeeled.)  Edamame are flavorless and add great protein.  Carrots are good, but too many can have a grittiness.  All fruits are delicious.  Cucumbers, avocados, tofu, and peas have all been in the blend.  Yummr smoothie safe for delicate foreign digestion!  (Anyone who has been to Koh San Road in Thailand would probably get that.  Yummr smoothies are definitely worth a trip to Thailand!)  Now I want a smoothie….. from Thailand.

BYU Grads

BYU!  What a place.  What a time.  I am all sentimental and such because my sister and brother in law’s recent graduation from BYU made me so.  So far in my immediate family my mom and dad graduated from BYU, then there was myself, then my brother and sister in law, now my sister and brother in law.   And don’t feel bad that that was 3 couples and then me, by myself, a lone graduater.  You will see in my picture that I was not entirely alone.  So here are some pictures of the graduations.  Tears.

I wish I had some pics of my parents graduation.  Hint hint.  And I wish I had some more digital forms of mine.  I don’t know where they went… I have two more brothers at BYU now and the youngest three siblings’ fate is yet to be decided.   Hopefully we can have an all-at-one-school run.  We shall see!

My Bike May 30, 2010

I love my bike.  And I don’t ride it enough.  But I recently rode my bike to get groceries.  I have a little basket on the front and the store isn’t that far away.  It was fun.  And it was a great way to get exercise in my life instead of stepping out of life and into a gym for an hour (that is how I feel about gyms….life sucking places I don’t like even though I do use one regularly.)  On my bike ride, while the euphoric high was making me optimistic, I came up with the plan to do an experiment.  I was thinking I would ride my bike to get any groceries I want for a month.  I thought this would lead to only buying the essentials, no junk.  Also it would lead to more exercise.

But……… I have now decided it would just lead to more eating out and more eating weird bits and pieces of things that I have had in my cupboards for a long time.  I know myself and I wouldn’t stick to it for a month, so I am not promising anything to my blog.  But I did enjoy my ride and I will try to ride my bike to get groceries more often.

Another bike ride I have done a few times is down the Scottsdale greenbelt to the Tempe waterfront and Mill Street area.  That is a fun ride!  And today I think I got myself invited into a biking club with some friends at church!  Can’t wait!

Of course I could take biking too far…. (this segway is a stretch but humor me because I want to show you the picture I took on the freeway)

Poor dog.  Looks terrified or at least uncomfortable.  Yes that is a leash holding him on.

I hope to move to a more tightly packed city and bike more.  SF is calling to me!  So biking is great.  That is all.

You’re Wrong and I Will Tell You on My Blog!

Once upon a time I was snowboarding with a few friends.  I am a pretty low key person without oodles of extra energy and with no desire to participate in most sports other than hiking, snowboarding, scuba diving, and gymnastics when I was younger.  I guess I just don’t do team sports.  Anyhow, I made a comment on the way home about being tired by midway through the snowboarding day and how at that point snowboarding isn’t as fun anymore.  I could be totally happy with a half day and then some relaxation.  I commented on my sluggish metabolism stating that “I have a hibernating bear like metabolism.”  I was joking really- or at least being my normal over dramatic/ over exaggerating self.

One of my friend’s response was, “that is because you don’t eat meat.”  Now I REALLY respect this friend so I didn’t go into all the ways this is a ludicrous statement, but he was serious and I get reactions like this once in a while.  (Of course a similar situation has happened more recently leading to the writing of this post but I wouldn’t want that recent person to know he made my blog…. so I go back in time a bit.)  I just want to rebut these types of statements in a safe and anonymous forum that I don’t think he will ever read!

1)  Eating meat is not optimal for your digestive system and therefore it requires much more energy to digest and use the protein in meat as compared to plants.  This is energy you could be using to play sports or snowboard.  Because meat has no fiber, it is harder for your body to move it on through the system.  It makes your GI tract sluggish.  Isn’t it common for people to eat a big meaty meal and then need a nap?  You don’t really hear of that happening after a giant salad (greens and veggies) is consumed.

2)  I get a more optimal level of protein as a vegan than the average omnivore does.  Most Americans get about 2 times the protein they should have everyday which actually slows them down, causes constipation, and causes (in the long term) kidney problems.  It is hard work for kidneys to filter out all the by products of meat digestion/ processing and it is hard work for the body to keep its pH in the appropriate range with meat protein breakdown being so acidic.

3)  Many vegans/ vegetarians report needing less sleep than they did before their diet switch….  Although I haven’t become the non-sleeping super human of productivity that I would have hoped.

4)  I definitely know I work better on this diet.  I don’t have the stupor of tired-unable-to-thinkness that I used to get about once a day.  I don’t need naps.  And my GI tract is much more happy and works wonders these days 🙂

Since I am writing things I didn’t want to say out loud at the time of hearing ridiculous statements, here is another little anecdote:

Once upon a time I was with some adults and some children in a car.  We saw a dead animal on the side of the road.  It had been hit by a car.  One of the kids expressed sadness for the animal being hit.  Not overcome with emotion kind of sadness- just a passing statement.  These kids were older kids (13-15) and well able to handle the situation of an already dead animal on the side of the road.  The adult leader in the car (the one having a large impact on molding those young minds) said, “I don’t think animals feel pain in quite the same way we do.”  AKA animals feel less pain or don’t know they are in pain so their pain is less important or nonexistent.  At least that is what I took his statement to mean.  Now this person did say, “I think” and they are entitled to their own opinion, but what is this statement based on?  I think it is a myth passed on generation to generation to make us all feel better about the horrible things we do to animals to eat them.  I think it is denial and justification. This particular person doesn’t know more than your average Joe about animals or biology.  Its not his line of work or his interest.  When asked, he had no basis for it scientifically.  I think people tell themselves this and propagate this myth because it helps them sleep at night.

If you have ever seen an animal in pain, then you know they feel it.  The stress hormone levels in grocery store meat indicates that the animals were in pain when they were killed.  Animals display being frightened by the potential to be in pain and by the smell of blood and the sound of other animals in pain.  All animals (which is a word that technically means mammals) including us, have the same basic anatomy and nervous system.  They feel things how we feel things.  Ditto with birds and fish.  You have to get down to lower life forms like insects and cnidarians with their nerve nets to start saying they may not feel pain the same way we do.  Now whether or not you care about animal pain is up to you, but don’t go perpetuating fallacies to make yourself feel better.  (Just for the record I don’t think this person put that much thought into their statement or was trying to perpetuate a fallacy.  I think its just so ingrained in many people to disregard animals and not think a second thought about eating them or their suffering.)

Okay I am done venting passive aggressively to the google universe for a while.

Copy Cat Couscous May 16, 2010

There is this great hole in the wall/ secret location style Middle Eastern Restaurant that I love in Tempe.  It is called the Phoenician.  It’s by the Mosque that is off of Mill (to the East) just South of the A mountain.  The restaurant owners are so nice and after you eat you can go into the adjoining grocery store and get all sorts of exotic things.  There you can also buy ingredients to copy the food you have just consumed in the restaurant.  This is just what I did last week.  I had some couscous with my falafels in the restaurant.  The couscous was a beautiful yellow color with a delightful flavor.  I decided this was turmeric and decided to make a turmeric couscous dish with lots of vegetables.  It was all a big experiment but I think it turned out great!  I boiled a bunch of various vegetables in a pot with vegetable broth, salt, a pinch of curry mix, and a lot of turmeric.  Then I added the couscous at the end and took it off the heat.  Easiest thing I ever made.  It turned out tasty and I think the color makes it very interesting.  It tasted pretty close to the restaurant’s dish!  Next time I think I would make an even higher veggies to couscous ratio but other than that it was perfect!

Sun Dried Tomato and Pesto Pasta

One recent day I got to thinking that I wanted some pesto pasta.  This quickly became an obsession.  But pesto is Parmesan cheese and Basil.  What is a vegan to do?  Luckily one of my trusty cookbooks had a recipe for vegan pesto that turned out delicious!  I also found some sun dried tomatoes in my fridge and decided they belonged with this dish.  Of course I used whole wheat noodles and my vita mix- but any blender would work.  Pesto is meant to be a bit course.  So here is the dish in chronological pictures.  (It was easier to take a picture of the book and recipe rather than try to type up the recipe and site the book.)  To top it all off, the basil came from my very own little herb garden!

And here is what the recipe now looks like with my ammendments….