WIAW: 75%+ veggies & fruits

Hey y'all! I'm in Austin, Texas right now, but I wanted to post this before I got here. I've decided to get super healthy. I've always been pretty healthy, but I need to clear out my system.


On Monday, I drank two green juices! I was hungry, but I moved quickly and had lots of energy.

Here's my green juice dinner - The Greenie from Nekter Juice Bar.

With cauliflower mashed + salt & pepper + a lite string cheese (not pictured)

This was demoed at the grocery store and I read about it in my e-mail from Hungry Girl. Yummy.

I'm hoping to keep this up while here with lots of veggies and less meat. I'm getting protein through powders, which isn't completely ideal, but my stomach likes it a lot more.

Some veggie snacks to incorporate: carrots (I hate them though), celery, and bell peppers (my favorite).

Icky sticky legs

Ugh. I subscribed to Nylon Magazine because it was alternative and artsy. I like the clothes, but I guess I'm not the audience.*



One of their issues had a whole spread on lingerie for the fuller ladies and there is one big girl in there, but she's famous somehow... does that count?

*Yeah yeah. I know some people will say I'm thin now, but heck no am I ever going to have stick legs like those chicks.

How about some food then?

Yesterday was a day off so I enjoyed watching "From Prada to Nada," which was much better for me than "The Lincoln Lawyer." I'm just not good at watching any serious movies. I tried some Xxtra Flamin' Hot Cheetos: pretty spicy. Did I do yoga? No, but this is my mat and I intended to do some. Oh well... Hey, I walked for an hour and a half to Walmart and El Super to get the chips and movie. :)

Today, I ate half of this baby. It's gluten-free, vegan, nut-free Black Forest cupcake (read its German background here) without the frosting but with the cherry filling. Sensitive Sweets opened up close to home. I was surprised by how good this was - all of it! Their white bread sample was also quite good; I'd love to get some of their cinnamon or chocolate chip bread. Be warned: both are chewy, but I'm all for it.

Did you notice I changed my nails again? Without a top coat and with quite a bit of free time, I was able to change it up again thanks to my cousin's blue denim and hot pink polishes.

Old but still hot

I did not see this coming. It was hot in the afternoon, but thunderstorms strike quickly.

This weather calls for some not-so-old but not-so-new music. I turned some on because it's kind of quiet in here.

• "American Boy" - Estelle
• "Hate It Or Love It" - The Game
  
• "Paralyzer" - Finger 11
• "This Love" - Maroon 5
• "No Scrubs" - TLC

As I'm listening to these, I'm reminded of a song one summer when I was in high school and we had cable.

First it was hailing, now it's really hot in here. I guess it's because the oven's on. I got bored (not working on my resume) and decided to bake my roommate something. I haven't baked much lately (yay!) but this is a special event.

Rocky Road cookies a la Sugarbomb Bakery in a skillet because I thought it would be cooler than a regular cookie

I chose that at the last minute, but I've been wanting to make some paleo banana bread and it all worked out since I found almond flour in the bulk bin today! How perfect right?


I had to decorate it. Happy 28th birthday roomie!

My favorite combination of food

I woke up for boot camp class and decided not to go. It's rough because I've been working out in the mornings everyday for a few weeks. However, class is earlier today at 4:30 so it'll be okay.

Instead, I woke up and read a little before going downtown for coffee at Old Europe. I went to the grocery store to buy bananas and OJ for breakfast.

This morning, I watched the "Best Wake-Up Call" episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." The first dish was Bobby Flay's favorite, peanut butter and banana stuffed French toast, from Cafe 222. They featured the recipe and it's also on the cafe's website.



I wanted to make my roommate banana macadamia nut pancakes since it's about the same (with the bananas and all), but sadly, I failed at making pancakes 3 times. I couldn't flip the pancake and I suppose the heat the pan to the appropriate temperature.

The white chocolate creme anglaise turned out well so I just made French toast, dipped it in the leftover batter from my brunch, and topped it with banana slices, macadamia nuts, and the creme anglaise.



Okay, the problem is that my roommate just woke up about an hour after I made it and it'll be cold and soggy. Oh well, his lost.

Comfort food: carrot coconut scones & sweet tater bread

Not too long ago, as in a few hours before I started baking, I decided to make Baked Exploration's carrot coconut scones and sweet tater bread from The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life.

These turned out a too sticky dough and ended up being just okay. I didn't make the citrus glaze because all reviewers said it wasn't needed.


I made the tater bread in cupcake liners so whoever I give them to can have them individually.

I toasted the pecans too long; they were a little burnt. With loaf bread in muffin liners, I must remember that it doesn't need so much time in the oven. I may have overbaked it a little.

A new adventure in cooking: 3-course meal #1

So I decided to bake and bake and cook. Yeah, I said it. I'm not much of a cook, but I will sometimes experiment with mac and cheese. I decided to try a vegan mac and cheeze recipe.

It was a lot of fun. I loved the salty miso, tomato paste, and nutritional yeast.


I used House Foods shirataki angel hair noodles for myself, split a bag into 3 ramekins, and then cooked enough regular angel hair pasta for Yancey's 2 ramekins.

I used about 1/4 cup of vegan "cheeze" for each ramekin and sprinkled on some bread crumbs. For Yancey's, I added frozen and then warmed grilled chicken he had.

First though, I wanted to make a starter. I decided on a salad with walnuts and goat cheese. I made my own honey mustard dressing with just spicy mustard, fat free mayo, lime juice, and a drizzle of honey. I quickly roasted some walnuts and found a quick cocktail recipe: 1 1/2 parts rum, 1 1/2 parts pineapple juice, squirts of key lime juice, 1/4 banana, and 2 ice cubes in the blender.


For dessert, I made Kyotofu's chocolate souffle cupcakes. Perfect because I had tofu leftover from making Sugarbomb Bakery's gluten-free brownies and because I bought mellow white miso for the vegan "cheeze."

Yancey liked them. They're fluffier than typical cupcakes because of the small amount of flour required. I made a half batch to yield 5 regular ones and 8 minis. We had one mini each... okay, I had two. There's no icing on top, just a sprinkling of cinnamon and a tad bit of chipotle chili powder for the kick I thought it needed.



What will I make tomorrow?

I have ideas about pizza, pancakes, shrimp, and strawberry shortcake... not together though.

Movie or baking?

Baking win cause Yancey didn't bring home any good movies. :(


Oh, I forgot to revise this later... that utterly abusive child didn't come to school again, but I never get my hopes up. He may be there tomorrow. Actually, the novelty of his absence is starting to wear off and I'm just getting annoyed of everyone else.

In the AM, I did the "Burn It Up" portion of "Slim in 6" then I went to weights class after work and Turbo Kick of course. Our instructor is hurt, but we still jumped when she said jump.

I came home and made cookies because I had mentioned my craving for cookies. I wanted cookie dough to be honest, but this cookie dough kind of lacked flavor. The matcha green tea shortbread cookies, when baked, were fantastic.

The recipe didn't specify the amount of time, but I found 10 minutes at 350 instead of 325 was perfect.

I got to use my new cookie cutters: cactus, moon, and flower! I bought these over winter break.


I had to make cupcakes because I didn't have a chance to use these liners. Some of them turned out well like this one, but some of the layers in the paper got into the batter.

This is a vegan margarita cupcake. I wanted to make vegan strawberry margarita cupcakes after going to Cupcakes for Cures. It was one of my favorites! Sadly, I didn't have strawberries on hand, but I did have extract so I put some in the cake and frosting. Not as good, but not bad. I used coarse sea salt (pink Himalayan for the two minis I made my roommate and I) and then topped it with flakes of red.


Finally, I had Yancey buy me bananas yesterday and I had lots of coconut milk and coconut flakes left from a project. I looked for the perfect banana-coconut recipe and found Orangette's banana cake with coconut cream cheese frosting. It was perfect because I had half a block of cream cheese left from yesterday too!

I knew it would be good cause Orangette's banana bread is my favorite!


I have to sleep now. I haven't been good at getting my rest...

Last hurrah baking: Babycakes NYC cookbook

The owner, Amanda, of Bake it Pretty let me borrow her copy of Babycakes NYC. I decided to bake quite a bit. After the initial cost of garbanzo-fava flour, arrowroot, potato starch, agave nectar, and spelt flour, baking isn't too difficult. The recipes call for quite a bit of coconut oil, but the book gives substitutions in the form of any other oil really. Anyways, it kind of weirds me out that coconut oil is solid at room temperature. Isn't that bad for you like fat that solidifies at room temp? I forget, but I won't worry about it now. I hear coconut oil is good for thyroid functioning.

I started with the vanilla frosting. I made the recipe twice because I froze it the first time and it just didn't work. The second time, it failed to solidify enough so I had more of a sauce with chunks of solid coconut oil. Again, gross.

First, I tried red velvet cupcakes before I bought all the others flours. It only calls for spelt. Somehow it was crumbly and hard. Maybe because I used cane sugar instead of agave though it's allowed.


I've been eating biscuits from Posana but thought I could make my own spelt biscuits. Spelt, apparently, is easier for digestion. They didn't quite rise.


Day 2, I tried again with agave nectar. I went on a rampage.

Vanilla cupcakes turned out good warm. The texture was different from the red velvet cupcakes and the recipe was totally different too. However, they tasted strange when cooled.


When I went to Babycakes NYC in LA, I tried a few things - not the cupcake - but I loved the chocolate chip cookies. The recipe was easy and the cookies ended up being my favorite! I added it to my repertoire of recipes.


Brownie gems turned out moist. Because it uses cocoa powder, I found that the taste is rather bitter... more so than dark chocolates even.


I enjoy the little stories before each recipe. Martha Stewart had Erin McKenna teach her how to make apple cinnamon toasties. Mine didn't turn out as crumbly as I expected. I toasted them again as recommended. They were better but not much.


I even made the hot chocolate recipe since I was in the mood for something warm. It was okay... too dark and bitter also (like the brownies).

LA bakery road trip: Babycakes NYC

I got a whopping parking ticket and into a car accident. That said, was it worth it? Kind of. I only made it to 4 of the 6 bakeries. Two bakeries, Vanilla Bake Shop and Yummy Cupcakes, were out of the way in Santa Monica. To save myself from my appetite, I only ate the best parts of the baked good - that sometimes didn't work out.

I drove over to Babycakes located downtown amongst the districts (fashion, etcetera). Everything around the store was rundown. It reminded me of the New York I see on TV... except in L.A. On a rainy and overcast morning, I just had to be over at Babycakes.

The best part: Erin McKenna served me! I almost had collapsed from the excitement. It's a foodie's dream come true!

The worst part: I didn't realize she'd be doing a demo in nearby Beverly Hills TODAY! Oh, I would have totally gone too.

I wanted everything, but I decided on a mini jam doughnut, a mini ginger cookie thing, an infamous cookie sandwich, and I just couldn't resist a biscuit with jam.

When I was reading their blog, I saw that they got press for their cookie sandwiches. Yes, they are delicious. The frosting melts in your mouth. I'm not sure if I'll be a follower of their frosting and buy dollar frosting shots though.

However, I loved on their delicious mini doughnut. The ginger cookie ball pictured with it was okay - you could tell it was vegan, but the doughnut... oh, I can see how they earned "Best Vegan Treat" from New York Magazine.

Their biscuits looked ooey-gooey and reminded me of "home." I got one despite the fact that it wasn't on my preconceived list. Vegan? Really? I couldn't tell. Too bad the biscuit wasn't warm... and I got there when they opened! A warm biscuit would have made my morning.

I'm going to start collecting some good cookbooks, which means pictures. BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery is definitely on the list now.