I’M HERE, I’M HERE!

Hey everybody! I’m back in action with a new blog. Please redirect yourselves here. I know it’s been a while! Hopefully I’m still somewhat remembered. 🙂

adios amigos!

since you’ve all been so nice to me since i started my blog, i think it would be awfully rude to leave without saying goodbye. i’m having an AMAZING time away at college now. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. i’ve met some great people so far, and am loving every minute of life. i’m too busy to keep up the blog, so this is the end of cardiovegsular. to put it simply, there are just a lot of other things that i rather be doing with my time. so no more blogging for this vegan. but thank you all for being such incredible inspirations and online friends while i ran this blog. you’re all great and i wish you the best! stay healthy! 🙂

a teeny update

hello loves! my life has been so chaotic lately. i’m homesick to the extreme. i’ve been crying multiple times a day. i just want my mommy! being away from home is so much harder than i imagined it to be. on top of this, there have only been two days of school and i already feel completely overwhelmed with reading. so i’m going to make this post short, because dinner has to be made and history has to be read! here are a few recent eats:

a nice lunch with the roomie

a great salad which i topped with homemade vegan thousand island, and a side of cumin & nooch black beans with fresh tomato

forbidden rice, stir-fried tofu, and a thai-flavored veggie medley

a simple dinner with the roomie. that's homemade vegan gravy right there! 🙂

baked potato, steamed broccoli, and a side of mixed greens with too much of that homemade thousand island (oopsies!)

whole grain udon noodles, sauteed zucchini and mushrooms, wilted spinach, and leftover gravy

since these eats, my appetite has dwindled significantly. i’m not eating as much as i should be, due to all of this stress and painful homesickness. i’m not going to go too much into detail about it, but i’m having an awfully hard time adjusting. at least my classes seem great so far. *knock on wood.* bye for now everybody! x’s and o’s. and just so you all know, i feel pretty bad that i haven’t been able to keep up with my google reader, but i honestly don’t have the time or energy. i’m pretty down right now. hope you understand. but don’t forget about me just because i haven’t been around as much! 😦

lara review pt. 2

alrighty, so i have officially tried every larabar flavor! if i remember correctly, a while ago i said that this was a goal of mine i wanted to complete by the end of the summer. well, goal completed! and it’s still summer break, even if only for a few more days! let’s start with a lara flavor that isn’t actually new, but was new to me.

KEY LIME PIE!

i liked this flavor a lot more than i was expecting to. i’m not the biggest citrus person, but this wasn’t over lime-y at all! in fact, i really enjoyed this flavor. i think the cashews and the coconut combined with the lime give this bar the perfect balance between tart, sweet, and creamy.

TROPICAL FRUIT TART larabar, oh so elegantly placed on a room service fruit platter

this was a breakfast i enjoyed on a hotel morning. the kitchen couldn’t guarantee that their oatmeal would come completely vegan (ugh) so i ordered fresh fruit, and rounded out the breakie with this new lara! this flavor is delicious! i liked the pineapple in it. and like i just said, i’m not the biggest citrus person, but this was pretty yum!

german chocolate cake jocalat bar, glass of coconut water

wow, i ate this forever ago! i’ve been saving the picture for this review. now i feel like a bad blogger for not remembering how much i liked it, haha. i remember that it was coconutty, but that’s about it. 😦

this is all for now, because i’ve got to get ready for a little hike. i just love where i live. sorry that i’ve been so absent lately! ever since moving i’ve been so busy with things! i’m not going to stop blogging, but i probably won’t be blogging quite as often anymore. i’m definitely not going to be photographing all of my meals and snacks…only the photo-worthy ones. i’m changing my blog into a place where i show fantastic meals i’ve enjoyed, rather than i place where i chronicle everything that goes into my mouth. so instead of getting a drawn-out post from me every night, you’ll now be getting occasional (but better) posts!

xoxo,
JB

whirlwind

hey everyone! i have been having the most amazing time moving into my new apartment. right now i’m sipping on a cup of chai (thanks nora) with rice milk, looking at the multitude of beautiful trees outside my front window. there are also a ton of bushes full of fresh blackberries, ripe for the picking! the apartment is looking incredible and i’m so grateful to have such a fabulous place to live while i go to college. i truly couldn’t ask for more! in a little while, my roommate and i are going to walk over to school to handle a few things, and check out the locations of our classes. school officially starts on monday. ahhhhhhhh! i’ve had a lot of great eats lately. so many that i couldn’t possibly describe them and the restaurants they came from in detail. so i’m just going to show you the pictures and write captions. that’s all you care about seeing anyway, right?! sorry i don’t have time to give you a very long post. i hope you’re all continuing to have a great summer! hopefully my blogging will become more regular again once i’m all settled in over here. 🙂

ALL OF THIS IS 100% VEGAN:

pearl iced teas (left: thai, right: jasmine)

thai curry soup

we dished it into these cute little bowls.

"dancing asparagus" (it was scary how much this looked like beef! AHH!)

"sizzling tofu"

cajun seitan sandwich, "cheese" sauce, side salad with vegan thousand island

west indian curry

cinnamon ice-cream (coconut milk base, sweetened with agave)

vegan chorizo tofu burrito

vegan mac & cheese with steamed broccoli, fresh tomato, and gomasio

"tostada delight" complete with wonderful hummus, brown rice, and black beans underneath all of those other goodies! (sorry for the low quality blackberry snapshot.)

p.s. i’m also ready to write lara review pt. 2, so that’ll be coming soon! gotta go now. bye lovies!

i’m really leaving home?!

hello my dear friends!

i may or may not write a new post over the next few days. if you follow my blog, you know that i’m about to start college! tomorrow i work all day long cashiering at an event, and then my mom and i leave first thing sunday morning to head up to my new apartment! i have a great place with the perfect roommate, a fellow vegan! we won’t arrive at the apartment until monday, because the drive up there is too long for my mom and i to tackle in a single day. and once i get to the new place, things might be somewhat chaotic taking into consideration all of the unpacking and organizing that will need to be done. point is, this is why i might be absent from bloggyland for a short while. but the longer i go from posting, the more pictures you can expect of amazing vegan meals when i return! my mom and i already have a list of potential places to dine at during our little road trip. i will definitely be gracing a few vegan restaurants with my foodie presence. about where i’m moving to…if i haven’t mentioned this already, i’m going to be living in a vegan’s paradise. i still haven’t decided whether or not i’m going to announce the name of the city on my blog…but just know that it’s full of the most beautiful nature, lots of hippies, healthy food, adventurous opportunities, art, spirituality, environmental friendliness, clean air, more bicycles than cars, and plenty of down-to-earth people. sounds pretty damn amazing, right? i’m revved up and ready to go! is it sunday yet?! 🙂

before i bid farewell to all of you lovely people, i have a few recent eats to share:

brown rice pasta, marinara sauce, balsamic sauteed eggplant and onion, fresh basil

that was last night’s din din. it was delish. i don’t know if i’ll ever be able to eat pasta marinara sans basil. adding it completes the meal. i mixed some into the sauce, as well as garnished the final dish with it. perfection.

oat bran (1/3 cup oat bran, 2/3 cup water) with cinnamon sauteed plantain and fresh cherries

this breakfast was super tasty. i’m really loving plantains right now! they’re such fruitily scrumptious things. each bite is like a little taste of tropical heaven! i know i’m weird, okay? moving on. actually, one more thing. add cinnamon when you saute them! soooo good. alright, now i’m done.

caesar wrap (that's tempeh in there, by the way), black beans, side of jalapeno cashew cheese (which i put on the beans)

yesterday was supposed to be my last meal at real food daily before leaving town, but somehow my vegan butt made its way over there again today! i was out and about, running errands, saying goodbye to HE one more time, and then hunger came over me. sadly, this really was my last meal there (for now.) i won’t be going back to real food daily again until thanksgiving break! oh RFD, how i’ll miss you! my roomie and i will be sure to crack open your cookbook in the new kitchen and do some of your recipes justice.

anywayyyy, i just got home from a great dinner at an indian restaurant. i loved how a (v) was used to denote all of the vegan dishes. makes my life easy! i didn’t photograph anything because i was preoccupied with the fam, and the lighting in the room was no good anyhow. i don’t remember the names of what i ordered, but i ate lots of delicious veggies. tons of eggplant. my favorite! i have to start getting ready for bed now, because i have to wake up really early tomorrow morning, and really early on sunday morning too!

like i said before, i don’t know if i’ll be blogging over the next few days. but i might find some time. i’m going to play it by ear. i hope you all have a fabulous weekend! eat lots of amazing nummies! xoxo. nighty night! 😉

i scream for rice-cream (and a cookie too!)

yesterday my mom packed a lot of my clothes up, and today she finished the tedious chore, then shipped them off to the new apartment! thank god for her. i’m hopeless at packing. it was hard enough for me to just organize everything and get all of my stuff together. last night we decided that we were going to skip the gym this morning, because we were both really beat from an exhausting day of exercising, running errands, walking a lot, and doing moving tasks. i woke up this morning and had a warm cup of licorice tea, diddle daddled around, took a shower, and then made this delicious breakfast:

cinnamon sauteed plantain, strawberry jam and raw tahini on a 7 sprouted grains english muffin

AHHHH, such a FABULOUS combination! after breakie i had a teeth cleaning appointment. joy! then i went shopping for about an hour before meeting HE (my bestest, bestest, BESTEST friend whom i’m going to miss very, very, VERY much while i’m away) for lunch at none other than real food daily. and yes, bestest becomes a word when it’s used to describe her. i didn’t get anything when i went shopping except for a few vegan eyeshadows. the real highlight of the afternoon was the lunch i had with HE. i didn’t have my camera with me, so it went unphotographed. sorry! i got salisbury seitan with mashed potatoes and gravy, and a small ceasar salad (just incase you care.) however, dessert was so delicious that i decided to whip out the blackberry cam (after taking a bite of the cookie and a bite…er, two bites…of the ice-cream.) take a look:

vanilla rice ice-cream

a carob mint cookie made from oat, barley, and spelt flower; sweetened with maple

we didn’t share. that was just mine. haha! she got the same thing but with a chocolate chip cookie instead. okay, so i’m a little bit ashamed to show this next picture…but i will post it anyway. i gotta admit it…i couldn’t finish the cookie! *gasp!* well, i could have, but i didn’t. and the worst part is that i left two measly bites. come on, JB, what’s the matta with you?! in my defense, you know that feeling when you’re just done? simple d.o.n.e? that was me. what can i say? i’m not going to eat something i don’t want to eat. usually i don’t even have dessert at all, but this treat was worth every single bite. so heavenly that i could hear angels singing to me in my ear. i can’t believe i won’t be able to dine at my favorite vegan haven again until november! noooo! good thing there are so many amazing vegan places where i’m moving to!

the leftovers...teehee

i just realized how long of a post this is going to be…because i still have yesterday’s raw lunch pictures to show! my mom and i ate at a cute little restaurant called better life cuisine. it’s organic, raw, and vegan…could there be a better combination? we started with a cup of soup to share.

menu

chili soup with sprouts and crackers

it was perfectly spicey, had SO much flavor, and the little bits of veggies gave it a nice texture. as for those crackers, i only had a couple of bites. they look tasty, but i wasn’t a huge fan. my mom really liked them, though. as for our entrees, i got the veggie salad.

mixed greens, alfalfa sprouts, sunflower greens, tomato, "grilled" onions, cucumbers, curry sauce, 3 croquettes, barbeque sauce, and house dressing

it was great! i didn’t use much of the curry sauce, and actually asked for a side of the bbq sauce they put on top, because that was good. the croquettes were sweet and delicious as well. what i really loved were the onions. i hate raw onion, so i don’t know what they did to them! as for my mommy, she chose a couple of salads from the deli case.

kale salad, beet salad, crackers

i didn’t try any of her dish, but she loved it! my mom doesn’t like fruit in salads (she actually hates fruit in salads) but she loved that the beet salad had apple in it. funny! she also ordered this…

tuna! or should i call it "toona?"

i had about half of one of those scoops…okay, maybe a little bit more than that. it was so good! it didn’t really taste like tuna (which is a good thing, if you ask me.) my mom was crazy about this stuff, and so was i! i should hit the chef up for the recipe! neither of us wanted dessert, but i had to take a few pictures of the display case because everything looked so beautiful and amazing! why are raw desserts so decadent?!

i’ll leave you with those sweet treats for now, and wish you all a happy rest of the night! cheerio! little tidbit: my grandpa uses “cheerio” in substitution for goodbye. he’s such a cutie. he’s also the type that purposely says happy halloween on christmas, or merry christmas on easter. haha.

“el bandito rojo” de RFD

hey, hey, hey! it’s hump-day again! time flieeeessss, doesn’t it? four days until i hit the road! i still have a lot of packing to do. and because of that, my room is a pigsty right now, which is really bugging me. but i won’t have to deal with it much longer! i have a few people i still need to say goodbye to, and i feel overwhelmed trying to figure out when i should see each of them. all day saturday i’m helping cashier at a body building show again, and then i leave first thing sunday morning. so i don’t have much time! anywho, let’s get to the nummies. this morning’s breakfast was fab. i mixed more cinnamon into the leftover chia pudding from yesterday and it was much betta.

chia pudding, banana soft serve, coconut butter

this breakfast was totally raw! cool! and i think i’m eating at a raw restaurant for lunch today. now the pressure is on to make a raw dinner tonight in order to keep up the theme! we’ll see about that…haha…at night i’m usually in the mood to cook! (with heat.) but as much as i love cooked foods, i can’t deny that i feel more energized after a raw meal. on that note, i’ll now show you a 0% raw meal, haha.

chickpea-veggie saute, warmed pita, kale chips, miso ginger wasabi dressing for dipping

a close-up of the goods

this was yesterday’s lunch. it was delicious! i’m glad i decided to throw the pita into the mix, because it tasted great with the veggies and garbanzos. and i finally made kale chips! yeah yuhhhh! i loved them! i seasoned this batch with sea salt and chili powder. yum! i’ll certainly be making kale chips again. next up: my dinner at real food daily last night! it was a great family dinner. i enjoyed every minute of it. of course little ol’ indecisive me debated over what to order, but i finally decided on “el bandito rojo” because when i asked the waiter about it, he said that it’s his favorite dish on the menu. that was good enough for me! now…i present to you…drum roll pleeeease…EL BANDITO ROJO, courtesy of real food daily, the most astounding vegan joint on the planet (as far as this chica is concerned.) i love you ann gentry!

corn enchiladas, seasoned tempeh, salsa rojo, spanish rice, black beans, pico de gallo, tofu sour cream, guacamole

now you KNOW i’m not about to say “i ate half of this and felt soooo full.” ladies and gentlemen, i ate the entire thing! yes, i did. every last grain of rice, every last bit of sauce i could get onto my fork. pshh, as if it was hard to polish off that tasty plate. since i take so long to eat, i was still working on my plate after everyone else was finished. this is not a rarity when i dine out with people. so i told them to order dessert while i finished my meal, since i knew i was going to be too full to have some anyway. i finished my dinner RIGHT as dessert arrived. and even though i have trouble eating dessert directly after finishing a meal, i couldn’t help but have a few bites of the coconut cream tart. ahhhh, it was heavenly. but just a few bites sufficed, since i was pretty satiated from that incredible dinner! i neglected to take a picture of this divine dessert, and for that i apologize…because it really was amazing.

that’s it for today, loves. i wish i had time to do some blog reading right now, but i really don’t! i’m going to make myself a cup of mayan cocoa spice tea and then i have to get started with my day! but i’ll be back later to do the usual blog-stalking and commenting. love you all!

winner, winner, chickpea dinner!

i didn’t end up seeing the orphan last night, which was actually fine because i was super tired. but i did make a recipe from veganomicon that i’ve been wanting to make for a while! chickpea cutlets!

veganomicon's chickpea cutlets, ketchup, dijon mustard, side of hot sauce

i made the baked version and they were really tasty! this is definitely going to be my go-to recipe when i want seitan but don’t have the time to make it. my only complaint is that i wish they were less chewy/gummy and more tender. other than that, they were pretty yummy! i bet they’d be good in a sandwich. i also want to try them with some gravy. last night i had them alongside a massaged kale salad.

kale, sea salt, raw corn, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, italian seasoning, nutritional yeast

if you’ve never added nooch to a massaged kale salad, do it! but only if you’re a nooch fan to begin with, like i am. it’s an ingredient that has definitely become one of my favorites since going vegan. i just love that nutty/cheesy flavor! since i got the idea from gena (choosing raw) i haven’t made a massaged kale salad without it! actually…i don’t think i’ve ever made a massaged kale salad without adding nutritional yeast, because the first time i made one was after reading about it on her blog.

aside from the chickpea cutlets, i made another recipe yesterday that i’ve been meaning to make for a while. i whipped up a batch of kristen’s raw holiday chia pudding while sipping on a cup of mayan cocoa spice tea (a current obsession of mine.)

mayan cocoa spice tea made with stevia and rice milk

chia pudding ready to be fridged!

even though it was torture not to try some, i didn’t have any yesterday. i waited all the way until this morning to give it a go!

chia pudding, oat bran (1/3 cup oat bran, about 3/4 packet of stevia, cinnamon) with blueberries

the chia pudding is SO GOOD! it kind of reminds me of tapioca pudding with a healthier tasting flavor, which i love. yesterday was my very first time making anything with chia seeds! insanity, right?! i continuously doused this breakfast in cinnamon as i ate it. next time i might add more spice directly into the pudding when i make it. i followed kristen’s procedure exactly, but modified the ingredients just a tad. what went into mine:

1/4 cup chia seeds
1/4 shredded, unsweetened, dried coconut
1/4 cup raw cashews (soaked a few hours, then drained and rinsed)
1 cup water
1 packet stevia
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

i was a little bit stingy with the spices, even though i love spice! but i figured that i could always add more on top when i ate it, like i did this morning. sometimes i’m in the mood for more subtle flavors and don’t want any spice at all. but with or without spice, this chia pudding is delicious! although, the constant sprinklings of cinnamon were a huge plus this morning! 😉

i have a couple more eats to share, and then i’m going to catch up on blogs, do some more organizing (for the rapidly approaching move), and most likely diddle daddle around the house for a bit before making lunch and then walking to my hair trim appointment. i like getting my hair trimmed because i love a clean cut ends. my hair is getting so long! my goal is to grow it to my elbows. it’s actually almost there! so i’m only going to get the bare minimum cut off today. i don’t have very many split ends anyway because i never straighten or even blow-dry my hair. after my hair trim appointment i think my mom and i are going to go to REI and look at bikes. i need a new one! fun stuff. okay, to those last couple of eats now!

coconut jasmine rice, homemade navy bean & sun-dried tomato dip, roasted green beans

i’m going to post the recipe for the coconut jasmine rice soon, because it came out really well. it was SO simple and SO yummy. and i’m really loving roasted green beans right now. i bought a bunch more at the co-op yesterday, so i think i’ll have more with lunch today.

white peach with cinnamon, glass of rice milk

so here’s the deal: i LOVE white peaches. but i like them soft and really juicy. this one felt ripe on the outside (soft skin and all), but when i sliced it up, there was no juice or softness! i tried a bite, and it tasted ripe. it had that delicious sweet flavor, yet it was crispy almost like an apple or a radish. it must have been of a variety i had never tried before…because honestly, this peach was ripe! i actually ended up really enjoying it, even though i’m super picky about peaches being soft!

so that’s all for today. i’m going out for a goodbye dinner tonight at real food daily with my mom, brother, dad, and some of his side of the family. it will be the last time i see my dad, aunt, and grandma before coming home in november! wow! so weird! of course i’m excited, because RFD is my favorite, but it’s going to be strange saying bye to them. only…it’s not goodbye, it’s just see you later! except this “see you later” will be much later than any other “see you laters” i’ve ever said to them!

have a fabulous tuesday everyone! i think i’m going to go make myself a cup of mayan cocoa spice tea before starting in on the blogs. 🙂

a plantain and a giveaway!

happy monday! the move to my new apartment is now officially less than a week away, and i couldn’t be more excited! yesterday i said that i was going to have a relaxing day, but then i decided that sounded boring…so i went shopping. hehe. all by myself! i like doing that. i bought a cute top, a t-shirt, some plain long sleeves, a scarf, and a pair of really cute oven mitts from anthropology to take up to the new apartment. yay! i would take a picture to show you, but a.) my mom already packed them away, and b.) my camera ran out of batteries. i have a couple of eats to share though, and a giveaway to talk about! so let’s get the ball rolling.

brown rice pasta, sauteed zucchini, evoo, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, black pepper

so simple. so fresh. so delicious. brown rice pasta tastes like super al dente white pasta, but it’s gluten-free and oh so much better for you! whole grain pastas are my love.

oat bran (1/3 cup oat bran, 2/3 cup water), sauteed plantain, a scoop of peanut butter

yessssssssss! i finally sauteed a plantain this morning for the first time! and i am now in love. IN LOVE! it tastes so much different than a banana. a lot fruitier and more tropical tasting. i’m going to start buying plantains more often. they truly are delicious! i sauteed this one in a little bit of coconut oil. the slices got all soft and wonderful on the inside, and golden on the outside. this was such a comforting breakie!

now to the giveaway news. katie has finally informed us of her spiralizer giveaway! geez girl, decided you held out on us long enough?! i want a spiralizer really badly, because i always grate my zucchini, and it just doesn’t seem the same! when i read what i can do to get six extra entries, i of course had to do it. make one of her recipes and blog about it? easy as pie. or…easy as banana bread in a bowl! 🙂

since i had already eaten breakfast, i decided to make it for my brother because he had just gotten up. usually he has absolutely no interest in my food, but for some extremely strange reason, he actually agreed to let me make him something. i’m sure  the name “banana bread in a bowl” had something to do with this startling decision. since i’ve been making gena’s banana soft serve all the time, i have a bunch of frozen banana pieces in the fridge, so i was able to make this nice and cold for him! i used flax plus for the cereal, and followed katie’s recipe exactly. before transferring it to a bowl, i took a spoonful out of the blender to taste it (so that it would still look even in his bowl, haha) and it’s SO YUM. next time i’ll be making it for MYSELF. needless to say, my brother loved it, and wanted a second bowl. my response: “go make it yourself.” i wish i had a picture of it to show you, but like i mentioned earlier, my camera ran out of batteries right after taking the picture of my plantain breakfast. not only is my camera out of batteries, but we’re actually completely out of batteries in this house. so it looks like i’m going to have to run and get some as soon as possible. isn’t it lame that my camera doesn’t have a rechargable battery? it’s a canon powershot sx110. nicer than my old camera, which didn’t require actual batteries. weird.

well i hope you all have a fabulous day today. i might go see the orphan tonight. i hope that ends up happening, because i really want to see it. it looks so creepy!