Thai Patio

Richard and I trekked up to LA's Thai town and tried some new Thai food.



It was pretty cheap and that made me happy. Only 5-6 bucks a plate and so much better than any fast food at that price.




The tofu there was AMAZING. I don't know how they cooked it at all. It was crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. I had Thai basil and chili with tofu.



Richard had Masaman curry with tofu. WOW. I snuck some bites from his and started pondering a trade haha.

I want to make more trips to LA's Thai town for the food alone.

Afterwards I tried to convince Richard to get some Durian but the smell made him refuse.
Soon though, I am trying Durian dang it!

Thanks to everyone for wishing my mom a happy birthday- she LOVED it :)


Are there any exotic foods you've been itching to try?


Teddy

Happy Birthday Mom

I just wanted to say a BIG happy birthday to mom!
I love her lots and I hope she has a great day :)

Teddy

Pumpkin Trivia

Last year about 2 weeks after Halloween I took this picture. It is still my favorite Jack-o-Lantern ever. Is it not one of the saddest faces you've ever seen? While I was in Big Bear I rediscovered him and was inspired to learn a little more.

Pumpkin Fun Facts:

• Using pumpkins as lanterns at Halloween is based on an ancient Celtic custom brought to America by Irish immigrants. All Hallows Eve on 31 October marked the end of the old Celtic calendar year, and on that night hollowed-out turnips, beets and rutabagas with a candle inside were placed on windowsill and porches to welcome home spirits of deceased ancestors and ward off evil spirits and a restless soul called "Stingy Jack" hence the name "Jack-o'-lantern".
  

• The pumpkin is the state fruit of New Hampshire. (I thought it was a veggie!)
  

• In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.

• Pumpkins are 90 percent water

• Native Americans flattened strips of pumpkins, dried them and made mats.

• Colonists sliced off pumpkin tips; removed seeds and filled the insides with milk, spices and honey. This was baked in hot ashes and is the origin of pumpkin pie.

• The name pumpkin originated from "pepon" the Greek word for "“large melon." (Has anyone seen- My Big Fat Greek Wedding?- this fact should have been slipped into that movie!)
  

What is your favorite Pumpkin recipe?
(I must admit I have not used it much besides in pie- I want to try it as a crust though)




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Blogger

Hi Guys
Something is wrong with Blogger and it's not allowing me to post pictures and is giving me a hard time. :P

I really want to update my blog to beta but am not sure how. Can anyone give me instructions? I don't want to lose all my previous posts. How do transfer all your past posts?

See you tonight (I'm DEFINITELY staying in, too tired to go out)

Teddy

Vegan Bday

Last week it was my friends , Eva, birthday

Eva is allergic to dairy and enjoys trying Vegan food. It turned out that she had never been to Native foods and there's where we went along with Cara.

We had Native Fries



Chicken fingers

And I had a Soul Bowl to go.

Everyone tried the chicken fingers and was impressed. Cara is allergic to chicken and can't eat it but loves the taste. I know she'll be frequenting NativeFoods now for those fingers.

The Soul Bowl was a new thing for me to try (sometimes it's good to step outta your box right?). I enjoyed how all the flavors complemented each other but next time I'll say no cauliflower.

Overall I think we all enjoyed it more than we had expected- which thrills me because now they'll both want to go there more often.
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Baby Update
Richards Nephew was born!
Welcome Landon Lee Brokaw to the world!

Baby time!

Last night Richard's older sister (she lives in AZ) when into labor!!

Richards going to be an uncle again.
We're both excited and can't wait to hear more. No word yet though and because of our work hours I won't be able to hear anything more until tonight. But I'm betting he's going to be a BIG baby. Every one of Richard's siblings were big. 10 lbs- that's the guess.



Everyone have a great Friday!!

Rob the Chef

My step brother Rob (NOT a vegan chef by any means) is a chef and while we were up in Big Bear he helped with cooking quiet a bit.



One of the nights there he and John made stuffed peppers. The stuffing included rice, mushrooms, garlic, and onion (I'm sure there was more but I didn't prepare it!)




The last night I there it was PIZZA NIGHT. Rob was pretty much in charge of the whole deal. Look at him prepare that dough! :) (I'm sure he hates that I posted this picture).



My pizza was vegan with mushrooms, olives, fresh tomatoes and basil. Thanks to everyone for doing the veg thing with me up in big bear for a few days.

When you hang out with non-veg friends/family what do you make/eat?


Teddy

Taking care of that fish thing!

I posted a couple of days ago that I was craving fish and I got great responses. Today I attempted to satisfy my craving a traditional way- Miso soup (I added some noodles to make it filling)


The soup was good but missing my favorite part- NORI :-/. I didn't realize we were out of it until it was about time to take it off the stove. A little disappointing because I was looking forward to that ocean taste of nori. On the shopping list this week- NORI and some ground kelp to make some tuno.



I had a hankering for some baking. I decided to make some brownies. The recipe is loosely based off of Sarah Kramer's (La Dolce Vegan) Espresso Brownies. I didn't have all the right ingredients which forced me to make it up as I went. They turned out a lot more espresso-ey than I had intended but Richard loves them. I like them as well but apparently not as much as he did!

Tomorrow's lunch.

I like to cook my lunches the night before to avoid waking up at 4 am for cooking. Earlier today I was catching up on blogs when I noticed Leslie had made some tacos with a chili mixture filling. Those pictures put my chili need into overdrive. Therefore tomorrow's lunch will be black bean chili. I prefer my chili VERY chunky and for some reason I need corn in it (I guess it's not chili but south western chili). I added some of my Soycatash to the chili too. I've already snuck bites of it and I can't wait for tomorrow's lunch.


What do you put in your chili? Beans? Corn? Like it spicy or mild?

Teddy

A weekend in pictures

Family portrait weekend (not official pictures- just ones Richard snapped while we were posing)



As I mentioned last week, John's 3 sons flew out from England and you bet we seized this opportunity for a family photo. From left to right the boys are Rob, James and Charles.

My mom, grandma and I

This is my favorite picture of the bunch.

My grandparents (mothers side) and my mom and me.

OK enough of the formalities. This is the REAL party.

A POOL PARTY


What pool party would ever be complete with out violently bashing each other with foam noodles?




John found a new use for his noodle. It became a mouth operated water pistol




All I wanted was to be left alone to float on my duckie.

okay the FOOD

Regretfully, I forgot to take pictures of the food spread Rob and John prepared for us (Rob's a chef- should probably mention that). I'll just say that my favorite bit was the sweet potatoes made with coconut milk OR the hollowed out pineapple with ice cream inside.

However ...




I made this for dinner when we got home. A roasted portabella mushroom sandwich (that's not lettuce, it's basil).




I was way off when I said that I got 15 baby artichokes; there are about 25 of them. I steamed about half of them to put in our lunch.

Tonight (the 18th) is my parents 7th anniversary! It's also been 7 years since all the boys have been out at the same time. We all went out to our favorite Thai food and ate until we BURST (I almost did- I swear).
Richard and I fought with my parents to pay and although they don't know it yet, I SNUCK THE MONEY IN MOM'S PURSE! HA!!
Take my money mom- it's YOUR anniversary ;)

Tomorrow the boys leave for home. Everyone's going to miss them terribly, but let's not damper the mood- this weekend was wonderful.

New Camera!

Yesterday Richard and I decided that was the day I was getting a camera. Of course, I'm not going to buy ANYTHING without some extensive research.
We spent about 6 hours alone researching 30 cameras. We even came up with a rating system for what we had read about each camera. One star meant it was alright, two star means good reviews, three star was EXCELLENT.
6 hours pass and we have the cameras narrowed down to about 4.
Panasonic Lumix (FX8k), Sony CyberShot(w50), Fuji Funpix (F20), Olympus FE 190


The first 3 cameras are all rated 3 stars but are also about 250 bucks (not including a decent sized card) and the Olympus rated 2 stars and was under 200. As you can tell, I got the Olympus plus a card for the camera for under 250(I would have enjoyed the more expensive ones but it's just not reasonable right now)
Reasons: GREAT features for my needs. 6.0 Megapixel, 3x optical zoom, Ultra compact, 2.5 inch screen, Macro and SUPERMacro functions, Lithium battery, 14 different settings and Image stabilization (I can not keep my hands still!).


I took my first pictures with it today and I'll be posting them tomorrow.

I know I've said this 100 times but really THANK YOU for your suggestions. They helped out a lot :).

Teddy

P.S. Yesterday was a mini family reunion/party with family portraits. They're going to be great pictures

Fish

Hey guys
Today I am deciding on my camera! Thank you for the tips. They've helped out quite a bit. :)

On to a mini food crisis:

I have REALLY been craving fish the last week. I definitely do not want to eat it but I was wondering if anyone knew of some good fish substitutes? Is there such thing as mock fish? I recently heard about some mock shrimp and am looking to get some of those.

Now I'm heading out to the shops and will be back late tonight to give a report on the camera.

Have a nice weekend!

Soycatash

I've had a few people ask what Soycatash is and I thought I'd like to do a quick post about it.
SOYcatash is nothing more than Succotash with fresh soybeans in it instead of lima beans.

About Succotash

Succotash (from the Native American Narraganset language, msikwatash) is a food dish consisting primarily of lima beans and corn (maize), possibly including pieces of cured meat (no meat in mine please!),
This method of preparing vegetables became very popular during the Great Depression in the United States.
It was sometimes cooked in a casserole form, often with a light pie crust on top as in a traditional pot pie.
In some places in the American south any mixture of vegetables prepared with lima beans and topped with lard or butter is called succotash. Succotash is a traditional dish of many Thanksgiving celebrations in Pennsylvania.

(Wikipedia)

Trader Joes makes Soycatash and I like to add it to my chili (I prefer chucky chili) or other south western dishes.


Now that you know what it is, any ideas on how I can use Soycatash?

Teddy

Much Needed MwM

Midweek Munchies: What Teddy- Funwithyourfood is contributing for the week I've been gone since Saturday Morning so a grocery trip was much needed. I can't remember everything I've gotten but here are my favs Baby Artichokes (about 15 of them for 2.50!) Portabella mushrooms Basil Frozen Corn Soycutash Links to other Midweek Munchies

Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia's blog

Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag: Midweek Munchies

A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

Hiking in Big Bear

I must say, Big Bear has some great hiking.

From the trail

I seem to have trouble with the mountain air (NO, I'm not completely out of shape... Okay maybe a little) so we did an easy 1.2 mile path that was a big loop. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was perfect for me. Great hiking weather :)



As a child I was a monkey. I LOVED to climb everything- trees, rocks, ditches. I haven't fully gotten over my climbing obsession. The picture above is proof of that (you can't tell but this is a pretty big boulder my mom and I conquered).



You know those people who take 80 pictures a day? I'm one of them. Here's the view I get most of the hike- WAY in the back taking pictures haha.

The beginning of the trail with Richard :)

After the 1.2 mile hike I had a hankering for some more climbing. Richard and I climbed to the top of these boulders. The view was majestic yet scary.

Thanks for the camera help thus far folks- I'd love to hear any more advice you've got (maybe from Catherine or Raw vegan momma or other people who have recently purchased- BIG thanks to Crystal :))


Teddy
PS I'm hoping to catch up on my blog reading tomororw. See you then!

First Meal in Big Bear

I'm sitting at the East Side Book Cafe here in Big Bear.
I'll be posting a review of this hole-in-the-wall coffee shop tomorrow
For now, pictures of the drive up and our first family meal here

I tend to get a little car sick on mountain roads so we made a pit stop at a view point on the way up.

Richard read the informational plaque but reading and queasy do NOT go well together.


Our first meal (not the greatest picture but it's all I've got):

No one here is Veg besides me and Richard. We'd all like to eat together and the rest of the family has been kind enough to agree to eating no meat while I'm here- but there's been some dairy. John made some tortellini in a portabella mushroom sauce with a baguette. The verdict- Great tasting and it definitely can be vegan-ize.

Dessert was my favorite part (of course). We stopped by Costco before heading up here and got BUCKETS worth of strawberries. Sweet, healthy, what more can you ask for?

Now for a little bad news- My camera broke!

I've got a couple pictures of us hiking but looks like I'm in the market for a new digital camera.

What kind of digital camera do you use? What are the best/most reliable brands? HELP! I'll be getting a camera in the next week and any help is MUCH appreciated.

Teddy

Native Foods

Before heading up to Big Bear we decided to go to Native Foods as a good bye dinner.



I had the Tacos with some seasoned fries. It's enough for 4 tacos and my little tummy couldn't handle it all. That means LEFTOVERS for the trip up. YAY :)



Richard had a jerk burger. I've never tried jerked anything before. Richard was kind enough to let me have a nibble. The verdict- 1 and a 1/2 thumbs up (is that even possible?). I enjoyed it but would prefer the tacos any day.



Native foods has these great quotes/advice/sayings on the parking spots. Eat tofu is my favorite.

I'm up in Big Bear now and I'll be posting about my hiking adventure tomorrow.

Here's the best news of all- NO WORK TOMORROW! It sounds like a good Monday to me :)


Teddy

Vacation

I'm going to Big Bear Lake today through Tuesday so I don't know if I'll be able to post at all. I'm hoping to stop by a starbucks with WiFi and sneak in some pictures.

I'm thrilled because my step brothers from England are here visiting for a week. It's pretty rare that they visit and they've only visited altogether once, for my parents wedding 6 years ago (give or take a year).

Okay I NEED to pack

See you all in a few days!

Teddy

While I'm gone I'd love to hear yoru favorite vacation spots, or activities!

And the mystery lunch is ...

Quinoa




Summer Squash




Banana Squash



and
Shallots!


The Banana Squash was the secret ingredient. :)

I asked Richard his rating on this lunch/SD dinner and he said he scarfed it down.

I, on the other hand, was not a happy camper when I had some of this for dinner. It tasted to me as if the banana squash had started to turn bad. I loathe throwing away food and decided to mask the flavors I didn't enjoy with some garlic and fresh Italian parsley. MUCH better.


It's FRIDAY!

I'm going on VACATION this weekend on threw Tuesday. More on that later!


Teddy

Richard's SD lunch

Here's a couple of pics of what I put in Richard's lunch

Can you guess what it is?





Good luck!

Teddy

Family Veg Night

Hi everyone
Since there is no Family veg night tonight (all of us are busy and we'll be going on vacation together this weekend), I'll have some time to stop by everyone's blogs and say hello.

Look forward to seeing you guys tonight after work!

Have a good Hump day

Teddy

Indian Curry and Potatoes

Not much going on cooking wise right now

I have family coming in from England this week and I'm busy getting ready for that.

For dinner tonight we had baked potato and chickpea curry. I added some tomato and some green onions.
Simple, quick, my kind of meal
Nothing too special.

What is your fall-back easy meal to make?


Have a good 4 day work week folks!

Teddy

OC International Fair Review

I ended up not attending the fair yesterday- mostly because the only things they had to eat were sausage and carne asada and beer. That didn't work so well for me. The OC International Fair is definately a no-go for veg people.

Instead I baked vegan cupcakes!







Details:
Chocolate cupcake with chocolate chips and a coconut vanilla frosting.

I left some at my parents house as a surprise for when they come home :)

Richard and I both agreed that they were delectable. I'm excited to bring them into work tomorrow- I'm hoping everyone will enjoy them and not even notice that they are vegan.

Hope everyone had a great 3 day weekend!