so lately i have decided to cut out all animal byproducts a few times a week. so basically every third day (sometimes less) i am vegan. i get asked what i eat if i don't eat meat, and on the days i am vegan, dairy. i think if people really thought about it, they have gone an entire day without eating meat and nothing bad happened to them. take this hypothetical menu...breakfast: cereal and a banana, lunch: grilled cheese and tomato soup, dinner: pasta with plain sauce. granted, i usually add more fruits and vegetables into my meals, but it is totally possible to get the nutrition you need without eating meat. i actually feel as though i get more than those who do. i have to pay closer attention to what i am eating to make sure i am getting what i need, so i notice if i haven't had the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. i end up avoiding fast food because of their limited options for vegetarians, and i feel as though that is a beneficial thing. so here is what i ate on a vegan day...

(yes, this picture was taken a few days back when i made this the first time. i wasn't going to retake pictures for continuity sake just because the penguins have been packed up. you might not have even noticed if i didn't mention it.) for breakfast, i made a smoothie out of silken tofu, rice milk, apple juice and frozen fruit. i (barely) sweetened it with agave since the fruit and apple juice already gave it a sweet flavor. i also added ground flax seeds to add some iron to it.


for lunch, i had a veggie noodle stew. i used canned diced tomatoes for the base and added some onion, sliced bell peppers and mushrooms. i added some rice milk to make it more like a soup and less like a pasta sauce, and some hot chili sauce for some heat. i cooked the bowties to al dente and added them into the stew. i toasted some bread to balance the spiciness and complimented it with vegan margarine and some ground cumin.







dinner was the favorite of the day. i made spicy orange glazed tofu and vegetables over brown rice. i started by heating the orange juice in a wok. to it i added teriyaki sauce and hot chili sauce. i let it thicken while i chopped the vegetables (zucchini, mushrooms, and onion) i then added those and some frozen red, green, and yellow bell peppers (thank you, trader joe's, for making my life easier). the night before i cubed firm tofu and put it in a bag with orange juice to marinate. i didn't want the tofu to fall apart when i put it in with the rest of the ingredients, so i "browned" it to a burnt orange (i added some fresh cracked pepper while cooking it). i prepared the brown rice while the sauce thickened a little more. it was so good that i think we might have it once a week or at least every other week.

i'm pretty sure most meat eaters could eat these meals without noticing that anything is "missing". the tofu had such a nice texture and flavor, that i think someone might eat a few pieces of it before questioning what it is. all in all, i feel a lot healthier while i am eating vegan and it usually continues into the next day. i'm not going to go all peta on people and tell them what they should and should not eat, but i will say that this is the right choice for me.

went down to nj for the day. i met my mom at david's bridal in deptford and she took micah to my grandmother's house. it is so weird doing anything without him. i have now been to an anberlin concert, out for groceries (twice), target/bob evans, and david's bridal/olive garden without him. i had a panic attack when jess and i went to see anberlin. actually, i had two that night. (it was my first time being away from him, save for the occassional nap) it never fails that i end up worrying about having left him in the car. anyway, i tried on and ordered my dress for amanda's wedding. i was so close to fitting in the size 2, but felt more comfortable in the next size up. score for moms with infants everywhere. actually, i think most hate me for that. after olive garden, i went to my grandmother's to find micah sleeping. i was told that he gave a ton of kisses and kept shaking his head "no". my mom, micah, and i met up with jess at the super wal*mart in vineland. although i might not be keen on their practices as a company, it is one of the best places to find vegetarian/organic/gluten-free/asian/mexican/kosher staples for less. so many items in our fridge/pantry are labeled kosher lately. being vegan a few times a week helps this out a lot. more about that tomorrow.

we started the day off by going to the king of prussia mall. mostly for fun, but we also got to see a couple of my former coworkers. we exited nordstrom and we saw this. it looks like a baby carrier, but don't be fooled. that is a baby sticking out of a partially zipped backpack. i double and triple checked just to make sure i wasn't wrongfully passing judgment. we then went to the lego store, where this woman kept getting in my way. granted it is a small store and there were a bunch of people in there, but she appeared in front of anything i even almost tried to look at. i was finally able to get past her to take a picture of their monthly projects...look at january's!also, we didn't notice too many people on their packaging. we found this set that had an old guy really big with two little kids in a smaller picture next to him.there is a toy store across from the lego store, so we went in. i put on an oscar the grouch puppet to entertain micah. i still can't get over how observant he is for his age. most people don't question it because they don't realize he's not even six months old yet. he is the size of the majority of one year olds. we went to the disney store as well and we were planning on having a family movie night complete with nachos and wall-e. unfortunately i wasn't feeling well by the time we were on our way home and i came home to take a nap. we'll have to reschedule it.

first entry.

no explanation or introduction.

the weather this last week has me missing texas, so i packed up the penguins. don't get me wrong, i didn't pack them all up. just the ones that incorporate snowflakes and other wintry or christmas-y themes.
micah and i were bored and decided to take "myspace photos" while we waited for stephen to finish work. about ten minutes into that, micah decided to pass out on me and brobee had to take over. i've been reading the manual to our camera so that i can take better pictures with it, but really the only way i can figure it out is to just do it.

j's were relatively easy to make. b's on the otherhand...

stephen came home and then we went out to genuardi's for micah essentials, uo for funsies (although i was kind of surprised that the one in suburban square is women only), and starbucks to meet people. while we were there, stephen had the awesome idea of ordering food from two minutes from our house. it was yummy, even though they neglected to put baba ganouj anywhere on my wrap. the falafel were delish and their tahini dressing is better than what i made for my salad (i need to try the recipe in the cookbook i'm reading. it's hard to balance out the nuttiness when winging it.). we watched the second episode of important things with demetri martin and the season finale of psych. micah and stephen fell asleep, but i am waking stephen up now to watch conan's last show.