Newlywed, Newly Veg!

Hey there, blog world! We just wrapped up a capital D delicious lunch at Earthereal restaurant (my old stomping grounds). 

But…before that…

To chop or not to chop? 

Chop!!!

Before:

After:

I feel so much lighter! I’ve had my hair short before, but the past two years, it’s just been getting longer and longer…and longer and longer! It felt good to chop it all off!  My hair actually had a lot of natural curl and wave, but when it gets so long, it’s too heavy for any of that to come out.  When it’s short, it curls right up!

After I returned from the salon, we headed out for a New Year’s Eve lunch at Earthereal. 

For good luck, Katie and John, the owners, started us off with a little sample of black eyed peas and cabbage:

We better have mega good luck and fortune this year! We’re eating black eyed peas AGAIN tomorrow during the LSU/Penn State game!

For my lunch, I chose the Harmony salad.  This salad is lettuce, topped with cheese, avocado, soy bits, olives, mushrooms, cucumbers, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, and sprouts. 

I felt very harmonious after eating this

We topped off the meal with some baked goods.  I got a sugar-free carob chip cookie:

Plus we loaded up on some chocolate chip cookies and bread to take home.  I love their baked goods!

I guess I’d better eat them while I can, because starting tomorrow…I’ll be kicking off a new challenge!!!

Before I explain my challenge, let me explain my theory/history with New Years Resolutions.  It’s quite simple, really: love making ‘em.  Hate keeping ‘em.  I always have a BIG, LONG list of allllllllll the changes I’m going to make in the year to come.  I always do really well for a few days…maybe even a week.  But by February, I’ve usually forgotten what my resolutions even were, much less managed to incorporate them into my life. 

Sigh.

But I do like the feeling of having goals to work towards, and setting a “challenge” for myself in the upcoming year. 

So, bearing that in mind, I’ve decided that instead of making a long list of resolutions for January 1st, for 2010, I’m going to give myself one “challenge” at the beginning of each month.  After all, I can do anything for 30 days, right?  The goal is to take on a single challenge every month, and then move on to another goal or challenge.  I think that this will accomplish a few things.  First of all, it makes the challenges MUCH less intimidating.  There’s no way I could go vegan for a full year, but a month?  That, I think I could do (we’ll find out, anyway!).  It will also keep me from becoming bored with my goals, or “forgetting” about what I’ve set out to do.  If I’m only focusing on one specific goal per month, I really have no excuse for not giving it my all!

I have a few challenges in mind for the upcoming months, but I’d love to hear your ideas on some possible challenges as well!

For January, as you can kind of gather, I’ve decided that I’m going to try (note: TRY) to eat vegan for the entire month.  I know that this will be a lot of work, and will probably be super challenging at times.  Who knows if I’ll be able to do it every day—there might be some slipups along the way, and I’ll ask ahead of time for your understanding and forgiveness.  The goal of these challenges is not to complete each one perfectly, but to give each one my all, and hopefully learn something about myself and my health along the way.

So, what this means is that starting tomorrow, in addition to not eating meat or fish, I will be consuming no dairy, eggs, or animal products.  I’m actually really excited to get started!  People who eat vegan are always talking about how it’s easier than it sounds…we’ll see about that!

Hope you’re having a great New Year’s Eve day. 

Ryan and I are seriously grandparents…we have no plans for tonight but to cook a nice meal and relax, just the two of us!  Well…plus the dogs, of course!  We might even watch a movie—watch out! Things are getting wacky!  We got a few offers here and there to do more “social” things tonight, but honestly—a low-key night sounds so good to me! 

I bet you’re doing something more exciting…perhaps you even have big plans for the evening?  If so, I hope you have fun!

Happy 2010!!!

Evening all! We just returned from our friends’ house, and this post is going to be quick because I’m beat…and I have an early appointment tomorrow to get my haircut!  As of right now, I’m still up in the air about what I’m going to do—and I’m either going to keep it long, or get A LOT chopped off, so it could be a potentially exciting trip to the salon!!!  I’m just going to see what I feel like tomorrow.  It’s just hair, right?  It will always grow back.  Ah, I’ll probably wimp out anyway and just get a trim

Tonight, we headed over to our friends Ellie and James’ house for a little dinner party, plus some Scene It action.  Ellie was so sweet, and baked up some tofu just for me.  It was delicious! She actually baked it, and then crusted it with panko breadcrumbs and seared it in a hot skillet.  She’s a really great cook—and I should know! I lived with her for all four years of college! 

Check it out:

The meal was actually really healthy.  Ellie said that she guessed (quite accurately) that we would all be sick at this point of heavy holiday food, so she cooked up a delicious (and nutritious!) feast of salmon, spicy Asian green beans, and steamed veggies. 

Green beans:

My plate:

The table:

I didn’t taste the salmon (obviously), but it looked amazing.  This recipe is actually one that we got as part of a wedding gift this summer!

Before we start looking like a bunch of hippie health nuts, let me explain what we had for dessert: Better Than Sex Cake.  My friend Ellen brought this cake, courtesy of Paula Deen.  Better than sex?  Let’s just say it didn’t disappoint.  The recipe is on the food network if you’re interested

Here’s a better shot of Mr. Wilson, Ellie and James’ new puppy who I got to meet the other night at girls night.  Isn’t he just the cutest?

We brought Baxter so that he and Mr. Wilson could get acquainted with one another:

Mr. Wilson passed out early, but Baxter stayed up with the adults for the Scene It game.  My friend Ellen fell in love with my camera, and proceeded to use Baxter as her muse:

Turns out he couldn’t really hang with the adults either!  What a sleepy head!  Reminds me of being little and being at an “adult function” with my parents and just wanting to go home to bed!!!

The Scene It game quickly dissolved into a “lightning round” version with the tie-breaker questions.  I’m not sure we were following the rules, but it sure was fun.  In the end, all teams did quite well…we’re leaving it open for a rematch in the near future

Hope you had a great night!  Can you believe tomorrow is New Year’s Eve?  I’m going to reveal some big news about my plans for 2010 tomorrow, so stay tuned! It’s nothing major, but it’s something I’m pretty excited about!  Have a great second-to-last night of 2009!

Night, y’all!

Bet you can’t guess what we had for lunch…

Sunshine Health Food Restaurant…again!  Sorry guys—I know that the lunch posts have been kind of repetitive while I’ve been down here in Shreveport.  But there are only a few good vegetarian-friendly restaurants open for lunch in Shreveport, so we end up going to the same two or three restaurants every time we go out to lunch

But backing up…this morning, Ryan and I hit up Shreveport’s YMCA for a nice gym workout.  The weather outside has been so nasty! I think it’s supposed to get sunny again by Friday, but it has been cold, rainy, and all around gray for the past few days. 

Since we moved to Altoona, we decided not to join a gym to save money.  We have a treadmill that we got on the cheap at a garage sale, and hand weights, a balance ball, etc.  I get pretty good workouts in at home, but whenever I make it to a real gym and get to use the weight machines, I can see how much strength I’ve lost in the past six months or so, especially in my upper body.  Sounds like a New Year’s resolution personal goal might be necessary.

Anyway, we had a good workout regardless of my weakling status.  I alternated doing 10 minutes of intense cardio with ten minutes of weights for about an hour, and then we headed home, showered, and met back up with my mom and sista for some lunch at Sunshine. 

The restaurant is repetitive, but at least I got something different for my meal this time!  They have a special salad called “vim and vit” that’s really good, so I got an order of that, plus a bowl of vegetable soup that came with a delicious, spicy cornbread muffin. 

Salad:

It’s kind of hard to tell what all is in this salad.  It definitely has: cashews, spinach, carrots, celery, cranberries, and sunflower seeds.  It’s dressed in a sweet marinade.  There are probably some other ingredients that I’m missing, but that’s about the gist of it!

Soup:

After lunch, we ran some errands.  My mother-in-law gave me a Marshall’s gift card as part of my Christmas present, so we headed over there and I found a really cute pair of shoes!  They’re pretty spring-y, so I won’t be wearing them for a few months, but I’m excited to wear them, come April!  Thanks Patti

My sister also found some cute baby clothes for Sophie…time to start shopping for her!

When we returned home, I had some dessert:

Have you ever tried these?  They’re really good!  They’re kind of like vitamuffins, but I think they’re more moist (and therefore better!).  The nutritional stats are pretty good too.  The brownies are pretty big, and one contains: 100 calories, 4 grams of fat, 7 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.  You can check out their website at www.glennys.com.  They have all different flavors!

Tonight, Ryan and I are going over to our friends’ house for a game night.  We’re playing Scene It, and I’m SUPER excited.  I have a little bit of a *ahem* competitive streak

We’re supposed to bring a dip/appetizer, but the time got away from us while we were running errands, so I think I might have to cop out and buy some premade dip from a gourmet food store here in town.  Don’t tell!

Hope your day is going great! See you tonight with a recap of dinner and game night!

Evening! I hope your day has gone well. 

Ryan and I hit the store this afternoon to buy the necessary items for a Southern dinner feast…vegetarian style.  On the menu: black eyed peas, collard greens + kale, and cornbread. 

We usually eat black eyed peas every New Years day for good luck, but I decided to test out this recipe early since our traditional one has meat in it (ham hock…yuck!).  Do you eat black-eyed peas for good luck in the New Year?  It’s something we’ve done since I was a little girl—I’m pretty sure it works, too!  I’ve always had good luck  

Can I just say that I’d like to pat myself on the back for this one?  It was D-E-L-I-S-H.  The black-eyed peas started out as a recipe from The Vegan Table, but we strayed from the original pretty quickly.  Our final recipe was:

Southern Style Black Eyed Peas (just in time for the New Year!)

1 sweet onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. bacon salt (yes, it’s vegetarian!!)

1/2 tsp. liquid smoke

1/4 tsp. dried thyme

2 16 oz. cans black eyed peas, drained and rinsed

1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 cup vegetable broth

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. brown sugar

Directions:

In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat olive oil.  Add garlic and onion and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add bacon salt and cook for another 5 minutes.  Add red and green bell pepper, thyme, and liquid smoke.  Cook for another 5-10 minutes.  Add black eyed peas, tomatoes, vegetable broth, and salt.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes.  Add brown sugar and stir to incorporate. 

Prepare yourself for a year of luck!!!

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this recipe, but it was really, really good!  We served our black-eyed peas over brown rice.  My dad and Ryan added ham to theirs

Along with the peas, we had sautéed collard greens and purple kale.  I hadn’t planned on adding the kale, but I found some really pretty purple kale at the grocery store, so I decided to throw it on in for a little variety and an extra healthy kick!  I sautéed the greens in my mom’s big wok, with about a tablespoon of olive oil.  I also added a tbsp. of brown sugar, about 1/4 cup of golden raisins, and about 1/4 cup of vegetable broth.  This was a delicious side!

All together:

Topped with some good old-fashioned Louisiana Tabasco sauce:

Hope you’re having a good night wherever you are!  I think we’re going to play a little Scrabble and then head to bed. 

Good night, dear readers!

Good afternoon! Have you had a good Tuesday?  Ours has been fun and productive.

We did a little Christmas gift returning this morning.  Ryan got me some nice foot lotion from Sephora as part of my Christmas gift, but I just bought some new lotion right before Christmas, so I wanted to look around for an exchange.  I ended up getting some Bare Minerals hydrating mineral veil.  Have you tried their products?  I have some of their tinted mineral veil and I really like it, but sometimes I feel like it makes me a little *too* tan.  I’m excited to try this hydrating powder!

I love Sephora, but I always walk out smelling like ten gallons of perfume and looking like a “lady of the night,” if you know what I mean!   

After our Sephora excursion, my mom, Ryan and I headed over to Razzle Berries for a quick lunch.  They have the tart frozen yogurt that I love, so I knew I’d be getting some of that…I also got a sandwich, for more sustenance.  Ryan and I actually ended up dividing our sandwiches half and half: half portabella mushroom, and half California wrap (avocado, olives, lettuce, jalepeno peppers, and tomatoes):

Mmmm…this portabella sandwich is SO good…it’s marinated and topped with creamy, creamy feta. 

After lunch, we picked up my sister for—what else—more shopping! Ryan needed a new pair of jeans, so we headed to the Banana Republic outlet store.  I usually love that place, but I wasn’t feeling it today.  I found a couple of basic v-neck sweaters on good sale, but that was it.  Maybe I’ve shopped myself out?  Nah….

Now we’re just chilling.  I had hoped to get another run in today, but it’s started raining

I think Ryan and I are cooking up some good old-fashioned Southern eats for the family tonight for dinner.  We’ll see how it goes!

Have a great afternoon!

Well, I survived the game

Around 2:45, Ryan, my parents and I bundled up and headed out for the Independence Bowl, held at Shreveport’s very own Independence Stadium.

Who did we root for?

The dogs of course! 

The Georgia Bulldogs, that is Actually, we weren’t really rooting for either side.  The Bulldogs were playing the Texas A&M Aggies, so I felt pretty neutral—shocker, right?

Georgia beat A&M 44 to 20…buttttt, we kind of cut out a little early!  The game was fun, but it was COLD!  My body was fine, because I had on my big Pennsylvania winter coat, but my feet were frigid!  My mom was really cold too, so she convinced my dad that we needed to leave at halftime.  That was fine with me (again, major shocker). 

But honestly, the game was a lot of fun.  It’s nice to do something a little different every once in a while.  I look forward to my next football game.  It probably won’t happen for another 15 years, but I look forward to it nonetheless

Game pics:

Healthy game snack:

Not so healthy game snack:

Mmmm…that maple nut Clif bar is GOOD! It tasted just like a big syrupy waffle to me!

After we cut out early, we headed to Albasha, a local Greek and Lebanese restaurant.

We started our meal with a light, healthy appetizer a fried cheese plate.  Healthy?  Um, no.  Delicious?  Heck yes!

For our entree, Ryan and I decided to split the vegetarian special.  It was delicious—and big! It was more than enough for the both of us.  Along with a feta salad, we got to choose five items from 10 choices.  We went for: falafel, baba ghanouj, eggplant mousaka, tabouleh, and lentils and rice.  We also had whole wheat pita on the side.

Vegetarian delight:

My mom got the vegetarian platter too, with slightly different choices:

We were stuffed after this meal.  But not too stuffed for yogurt!  TCBY is one of my guilty pleasures, and we don’t have one in Altoona.  I always have to stop by for a treat when I’m in town.  I got a small yogurt with half white chocolate mousse and half peanut butter.  Mmmmm…

Delicious! 

Hope you’ve had a great night!  See you tomorrow!

Well, I feel like I’m finally getting back into the swing of things, in terms of moving past holiday indulgences. 

This morning, after sleeping in a bit (8:30—what’s wrong with me?!? I’m usually up by 7 at the latest! I guess all this travel really did kind of wear my body out…), I went on a nice, six mile run—it was cold outside, but beautiful—not a cloud in the bright blue sky! After about 1/2 a mile, my body was warmed through, and the rest of the run was perfect!

After returning home and showering, I was ready for lunch! For lunch today, my mom and I both threw together some super salads!

My salad contained: mixed greens, baby spinach, frisee, edamame, sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, lemon zest, apples, carrots, lemon juice, and a drizzle of olive oil.  Topped with Mary’s Gone Crackers for extra crunch

Delicious and nutritious! For dessert, I had a handful of Go Raw supercookies and half a Kashi dark chocolate cookie.  I’m digging these supercookies! The original flavor is definitely where it’s at:

My mom and I are about to go run some errands, and then I think we’re heading out for the football game around 3:00.  It’s going to be cold out there.  I’ll be honest here—I’m not a huge football person.  My college (College of Charleston) didn’t even have a football team, and during my entire four years of post-grad at Purdue, I didn’t attend a single game (insert blushing smiley-face here).  Now that I’m at Penn State, I really feel like I should go to a game…but laying in bed with a good book is just so much more appealing to me! What can I say—I guess I’m a stereotypical football-hating, English-majoring poet

Ah, I’m sure we’ll have fun tonight—as long as it doesn’t get too cold!  That’s when the complaints usually start up from yours truly.

Hope you have a great Monday afternoon.  I think we’re going to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner after the game, so I’ll be back with a recap of dinner (and the game, of course.  Provided I can figure out what’s going on—my dad tells me he’s going to give me a  pop quiz afterwards )!

See ya!

Good evening! Hope your night has gone well!  We’ve had a fun one!

Tonight, my mom made a vegetarian potato, leek, and rosemary soup for dinner.  It was delicious!  The recipe was from a copyrighted Barnes and Noble cookbook, so I won’t post it verbatim, but it had leeks, potatoes, stock, rosemary, and whole milk in it…you can use your imagination! It was a pretty simple soup to make, so it would be easy to re-create.

Before dinner, we enjoyed some wine and cheese:

Isn’t the label on this wine pretty?

We built a fire in the fire pit in my parents’ backyard and enjoyed some wine, fireside, while we waited for the soup to cook.  After about 30 minutes, it was time to eat!

The soup was topped with sauteed leeks and Greek yogurt.  With the soup, we had a simple salad…and of course, bread!  I love the flavor of leeks—so mild and delicious! The potatoes made the soup really velvety and creamy…without heavy cream!

Hmmm…how did the bread basket end up right by me?  Interesting

For dessert, we passed around the little that was left of our Christmas cookies, along with part of a chocolate Santa.  We also split up one of the coconut curry Theo chocolate bars that Ryan and I brought back from Seattle.  I think I was the only real fan of that one—everyone else complained that it was too spicy!  My palate must just be more sophisticated than theirs

We also split up the Theo’s salted caramels that we brought back for everyone.  Of all the chocolate treats, those salted caramels are my favorite, I think.  I love that combination!

Mini-delight:

We just finished up a raucous game of Taboo.  I’m proud to say that Ryan and I dominated!  I think it has something to do with being English teachers. 

The game was cut short when *someone* had an accident. 

But how can you stay mad at a face like this?

Hope your weekend has wrapped up nicely.  Tomorrow, we’re going to the Independence Bowl in the afternoon, but I’ll be blogging beforehand with lunch. 

Have a great Sunday night, and a tolerable Monday morning

Afternoon! I hope your Sunday is going well.  Ours has been very relaxing.  Ryan and I skipped church, and instead took the dogs on a nice 4 mile walk.  It’s a gorgeous day outside—it would have been a shame to spend it indoors

By the time we got back to the house, my parents had just gotten back from church, and we were all ready for some lunch!

For my lunch, I headed south of the border.  I heated up a Morningstar veggie burger and crumbled it into an Ezekiel wrap, along with some guacamole and black beans (Ryan and my parents made Mexican food for their dinner last night while I was away with the girls), all topped with some Follow Your Heart cheddar.  I think I like the cheddar even better than the mozzarella.  Again, I don’t think I would just eat it plain or on a cracker, but melted into a big fat burrito, it tasted pretty good!  My mom put some in her lunch as well, and she said she liked it! 

Burrito:

Stuffed with mixed greens and rolled up tight:

After lunch, I snacked on some new cookies that I got at our natural foods store yesterday.  Actually, they call them “super cookies” on the bag, but I would say they’re closer to a mix between a cracker and a cookie. 

The brand is Go Raw, and the cookies are: raw, vegan, certified organic, wheat/gluten free, and nut free. We got three different flavors, and I tried two today: original and chocolate.

You know, I’m a huge chocolate fan, but I actually liked the original flavor better than the chocolate with these.  The original had a great coconut flavor that worked well with the crispness of the cookie (cracker?).  The chocolate ones were good too, but the cocoa-flavor was slightly underwhelming.  I don’t think I would have known that they were supposed to be chocolate-flavored if it didn’t say so on the package.  Still, both kinds were good!

The nutritional stats on both are pretty comparable.  Each bag has three servings, with around 150 calories per serving.  The original has slightly more fat than the chocolate (9 and 8 grams, respectively), slightly more protein (3 and 2 grams), slightly less carbohydrates (15 and 17 grams), and slightly less sugar (5 and 6 grams).  Both have 4 grams of fiber per serving. 

These are definitely not going to replace chocolate chip cookies any day soon, but for a sweet, healthy snack, they’re a good option to have!  We also got some savory pumpkin seeds ones, so I’ll let you know how those turn out when I taste them.

Hope your day is off to a good start! See you tonight for dinner!

Good morning! Sorry that I didn’t post last night—I didn’t get home from girls night until 12:30—that’s really late for this old lady!

But before girls night, we went to the park for another party…a dog party!

My mom, Ryan and I walked Ella, Baxter, and Sugar over to the local park, where we met up with my aunt and uncle and their three children (plus their dog Bethany), my other aunt, and my grandmother (plus her two dogs, Sam and Tutu).

It was a true dog party:

The big dogs enjoyed running around:

While the small dogs mostly sat around.  And Baxter did a lot of this:

Here’s my mom with her mom and two sisters.  Lovely ladies!

A good time was had by all.  Especially by Bethany, who found a big mud puddle to roll around in right before we left.  Gotta love that!

After we returned from the park, Ryan and I pumped up the heat in our bedroom…and did a hot yoga class that I downloaded from yogadownload.com!  It was the same 26 Bikram poses from our hot yoga class in Seattle—I don’t usually like the audio downloads, because I like to actually see someone doing the poses, but because we were already familiar with them, this audio was great.  We both liked it! Our room didn’t get nearly as hot as the yoga studio, but even without sweating buckets, the yoga felt good!

It was a 90 minute class, so I cut out about 10 minutes early so that I could shower and head over to girls night!  GN was hosted by my friend Stefanie, and included gumbo, salad, appetizers, mini pecan pies…and lots and lots of wine.  I didn’t take pictures of my eats over the night, but rest assured that I indulged in all of the above (except the gumbo, of course!). 

My friend Ellie violated the rules and brought a boy along…her new puppy, Mr. Wilson!  She just got him on Sunday, and he is so, so cute!

He got acquainted with Stefanie right away:

Girls night started out innocently enough:

But soon enough digressed into this:

…and this:

….and this:

After a while, Mr. Wilson got fresh with my friend Ellen:

Careful, buddy.  She’s a married woman now!

The group:

I love being a newlywed, but sometimes you just need a good night with the girls.  There’s nothing like moving 20 hours away to really make you appreciate your girlfriends.  I’m lucky to have a group of such strong, lovely girlfriends—I can feel the love radiating from them, even all the way up in Altoona

Not sure what’s in the cards for this Sunday.  We might go to church…or we might just lounge around!  It’s a beautiful day outside, so I’d like to get a run in at some point…but I need to hydrate from the wine I enjoyed last night.  I’m feeling a little parched

Hope you had a great weekend!