Day 233 -- Happy Birthday To Me!

It's day 233 and it's my birthday, so I'm taking the day off of blogging.  But I will leave everyone with this -- a recipe for Vegan Chocolate Cake from MarthaStewart.com!

And I hope that's not a glass of cow's milk sitting next to that plate!

Day 232 -- Looking Back -- And Forward

Tomorrow is my birthday!  I won't say how old I am.  Old enough.  As the big day approaches, I've been thinking about the changes I've made in my life in the past year.

Last August 16th, I was pretty unhappy with myself.  I'd spent the summer feeling exhausted and sick and uncomfortable.  I was way too heavy and I began to wonder if I'd ever do anything about it.  Birthdays are always a time to reflect on the past year and the upcoming year and for the first time in many years, I have an optimistic outlook.

I've lost 74 pounds since the start of the year and I'm pretty happy with that.  I've been sitting at the same weight for about a month now, but I also haven't been focusing on diet as much as I should.  So I hope August 16th will be motivation to finish this thing.  The end of my "vegan year" is approaching more quickly every day.  And I'd like to lose at least another 40  pounds before the end of the year.  That's going to be a pretty tough thing.  So maybe I'll have two years as a vegan.

I have made one decision, though.  I won't be a strict vegan.  I'm going to try to eat vegan as much as I possibly can, at home and out when there are vegan option on the menu.  But I am going to eat fish occasionally and cheese when I have pizza.  Other than that, I think I should be able to stick to a vegan diet and be perfectly happy.

Day 231 -- One Stop Website For Vegans

I've been talking about the VegNews survey and never really mentioned VegNews.com.  So, we'll begin with this photo from their homepage.

Yeah, a few days ago it was Rice Krispy Treats and now it's Ryan Gosling.  Did you know that he's a vegan?  I didn't until I read it in VegNews!

I also found 9 Vegan Foods For Healthy Skin -- tomatoes, flax seeds, dark chocolate, sweet potatoes, spinach, citrus fruits, safflower oil, walnuts, and carrots.  And I found tons of great recipes.  So, this site is moving up on my list of sites to visit every week.

Day 230 -- Thug Kitchen

One of the blogs listed in my recent post was Thug Kitchen.  I stumbled across this blog early on in my vegan journey and I thought it was really funny.  It's liberal use of curse words in order to persuade that reader to try recipes is strangely at odds with the "chill" vegan persona.  And that's why it's so entertaining.  Here's the photo of a recent entry for a Chickpea Pesto Sandwich that I plan to try very soon (with a slice of fresh tomato from my dad's garden).

All right, I'm definitely going to try this sandwich!  And not because I feel threatened but because it looks really, really good!

Day 229 -- One Potato, Two Potato . . . Fifty Potato?

I'm reaping the benefits of my dad's huge garden this summer.  And one of the veggies he's planted is potatoes.  Actually, two types, red and yellow.  Until I saw my dad dig potatoes for the first time last year, I never really knew how potatoes grew.  I knew they grew underground, of course, but seeing them emerge from the dirt for the first time is so much fun!

When the shovel turns the dirt over, there they are, small and large, breaking free and lying at your feet.  When you dig a plant, the potatoes come up in a variety of sizes, so I have a bucket of very small red potatoes, about the size of a ping-pong ball, and then larger potatoes, almost the size of my fist.  Freshly dug potatoes are so tasty, too!

I found this recipe for Smoky Potato, Cabbage and Chickpea Skillet on a vegan blog called MapleSpice.  Though it calls for vegan "parmesan cheese" which I'm not sure I can find anywhere in my area, I'm stil going to give this a try!

A little tip I'll pass along about freshly dug potatoes -- It's best not to wash off the dirt until right before you use them.  They'll remain fresh longer!

Day 228 -- Blogging About Blogs . . . Again!

See what I did there?  I lured you in with promises of Rice Krispy Treats.  As a kid, my siblings and I lived for Rice Krispy treats -- and Scotcheroos, which were made with peanut butter instead of marshmallows.  But back to the treats later.  VegNews website and newsletter does its awards survey this month and one of the categories is best vegan blog.  I thought I'd list the candidates here since I might find some new sources of inspiration for my vegan cooking.  Several of my favorite blogs are on the list.  I've gone through the list and will feature a few new favorites over the next few days, but I'm pretty fussy about what I eat, so if the blog doesn't grab me right away, then I probably won't go back.

Here's the list!
Bittersweet
Chocolate-Covered Katie
Choosing Raw
FatFree Vegan Kitchen
Happy Herbivore
Healthy. Happy. Life.
Maple Spice
Mouthwatering Vegan Recipes
Oh She Glows
This Rawsome Vegan Life
Thug Kitchen
Vegan Yack Attack
Vegansaurus

I'm a big fan of FatFree Vegan Kitchen and Oh She Glows.  And I'm going to add a new blog to my list.  Happy.Healthy.Life.  And as a reward for following along, here's the link for vegan Rice Krispy treats from the Healthy.Happy.Life.    See, it does pay to explore new blogs!

Day 227 -- A Whole Lotta Tomatoes

My father always plants a lot of tomatoes in his garden, so about this time of year, everyone around him gets inundated with fresh tomatoes.  Since BLTs are out this year, as is a Caprese Salad (with fresh mozz), I've been looking for some good recipes.  I love roasting fresh tomatoes and one of my favorite dishes is the Roasted Artichokes, Leeks and Tomatoes over Warm Farro that I posted a few weeks back.

This recipe for Eat Your Greens Chickpea Medley comes from Oh She Glows, one of my favorite vegan blogs.  The recipe calls for both spinach and cilantro ground up and tossed with the chickpeas, but I might try basil instead of the cilantro as I have a lot of basil in my herb garden.  The dressing for this uses lime juice, olive oil, garlic and cumin.  Sounds yummy!  I'll let you know how it was.