Feed 'em

Tiny paper bags that were for the trail mix bar at the wedding now work perfect for snacks! 

Packing lunch for my main squeeze is really kicking my ovaries into a frenzy.  I can't wait to pack special lunches for my curly headed non-existent beebees. sigh. We got a mason jar salad with tomatoes, edamame, green beans, corn, cucumbers, jalapenos, grilled chicken and avocado.  A whole wheat wrap also with grilled chicken and avocado, some carrots, some pub mix and one of the most delicious Jazz apples I've ever had.  He's working out more now so we thought it best to start easing some meat back in every now and then.  A man can only survive off of tofu so long before he starts growing chi-chi's.

Vegan Tofu Chili

I've decided that my cooking style these days is "healthy soul food" so with that comes today's creation

VEGAN TOFU CHILI & JALAPENO CORN MUFFINS

Soy cheese and milk-free sour cream

Drizzle a little honey when they come out of the oven, oh boy!

I know tofu isn't for everyone but at least give it a try, my husband loved it and he is not a tofu fan at all.

NECESSITIES

For chili:

2 cans of red kidney beans (drained)

1 can of great northern beans (drained)

1 can of diced tomatoes (or stewed, whichever ya like)

1 can of crushed tomatoes

1 yellow onion (diced)

1 tsp. garlic

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 fresh jalapeno

1 pressed and drained package of extra firm tofu

2 tbs. olive oil

For corn muffins:

1 box of jiffy corn muffin mix

1 egg

1/3 c. milk

1/2 fresh jalapeno

8oz. drained corn

1 tbs. mayonnaise (grandma's secret ingredient)

Chili:(4-6 servings)

1. In a medium pot on medium high heat saute the diced onion, jalapeno and garlic until brown

2. Add cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper 

3. Crumble tofu into pot and stir until coated with seasonings

4. Add tomatoes and drained beans, cover and cook on low for 20 minutes and you're done

Corn muffins: (makes 6-8)

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2.Grease cupcake tin

3.In a bowl combine all ingredients, fill cups 3/4 of the way and place in the oven for 15-20 mins

Pinterest Reviews: Mason jar salads & Boiled scents

Mason Jar Salads: Awesome.
Wonderful idea, legit concept. Just make sure the order is correct.  The salad stays fresh all day.  Take it easy with the dressing tho because once you start cramming goodies in there it creeps up and you don't want it touching your salad.

Boiled orange peels and cinnamon sticks: Disgusting.

Sounded like such a good idea and I figured with a small apartment it would make the whole place smell great.  It smelled like hot cinnamony urine. Had to trash it instead boiled lemon peels and rosemary which were just sitting on my counter, much better.

Breakfast of champs

Living in Orange County I have noticed an over-abundance of  gnats. Disgusting.  They're everywhere, all in the grocery stores, on the streets and on our patio which we have a sliding screen into our kitchen.  They kept managing to get inside so we bought a screen to block our patio from the outside world and I also made one of those apple cider vinegar traps which worked wonders. Now to my point; me and DB loooooveeee bananas and we would only get to enjoy them for a few days before the gnats started hovering.  At this point I would just peel them and stick them in the freezer with the intention of making banana bread at some point but I have found a new pleasure, banana shakes.  In the morning I grab 3-5 of these frozen delights, throw them in the blender with a cup of vanilla almond milk, 1 tablespoon of honey and blend into submission. It's so creamy and so filling you almost feel like you shouldn't be having it for breakfast.

Sometimes I'll toss in some strawberries for a little kick.  Go, do it.

A Good Book or 8

My whole life I've never been able to just read one book at a time and the library only makes it worse.  At this very moment I have a bookmark in:

 -The China Study

-A New Earth

 -The Vixen Diaries

 -Nutrition for Dummies

-Fifty Shades Freed

-Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

-The Wind in the Willows

Nothing brings me so much joy as a stack of books and a quite place.

“Oh for a book and a shady nook,
Either indoors or out,
with the green leaves whispering overhead,
or the street cries all about.
Where I may read at all my ease
both of the new and old,
For a jolly good book whereon to look
is better to me than gold” 
― John Wilson

Butter chicken for Toby

Toby is here!  I say that as if everyone already knows who he is and the sad thing is that if you don't know him you probably know someone who does.  Toby came to visit us with his friend Charlie on his road trip from Colorado back to the Bay Area.  Toby is an artistic soul, a master in all forms of creativity (check his site www.mynameistobias.com) including cooking, so I felt I had to come correct with him as my guest.  The  hubs and I are pretty much vegan but we never subject our guests to our eating choices so tonight I experimented with a new method of cooking chicken, oh man...so good.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it because as soon as it was out of the oven the man was home from work and ready to eat.  But never fear, dear Tobias snapped a pic for instagram that I have stolen, it doesn't look delicious and the plate is not beautiful but please believe it was fan-freakin-tastic.

What I used:
12 drumsticks
Table salt
Olive oil
1 stick of salted butter
1 sprig of rosemary
Any seasoning blend you like *my favorite, sent to us from my brother & sister-in-law in Baltimore*
Heavy pot or pan with lid, i used this.
Baking sheet

Please note, I do not measure anything and I do not look at times so everything is a guesstimation.
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
1. Throw the drumsticks in a tupperware container full of salt water and stick it in the freezer to chill out. The salt water keeps the chicken from being bloody when it fries and I find that once the cold chicken hits the hot oil it seals the moisture in better. *I did this about 20 minutes before step 2 but the longer the better*
2. In the pot I put 1TBS. of olive oil and 4TBS. of butter on medium-high heat.
3.  Once the butter started bubbling I took the chicken out of the freezer, rinsed and seasoned it.  I then placed the drumsticks into the pot allowing them to brown on all sides.
4.  After all of the pieces were browned I placed them on a baking sheet and poured the remaining butter mixture from the pot on top of the chicken.
5. I popped the baking sheet in the oven at 350 for 15 mins  I then turned the pieces over and  upped the heat to 400 for 5-10 mins and when the skin began peeling back off of the legs and the pieces appeared to be done I broiled them for a little under 5 mins until they were crispy looking.

The chicken was so juicy and would be delicious with a sweet glaze afterwards, I'll be trying that next time.

Wedding rundown

A little rundown on the wedding setup.  Our theme was outdoorsy/camping.  We love hiking and camping and being outside so we thought this would be a good way to share something we love with our guests.  Royal blue gingham was incorporated as much as possible as well as pine cones.  My husband was second shooter and a DJ for alot of weddings and made it very clear that he didn't want "wedding food" so as a compromise to the standard chicken, beef, vegetables and potatoes we ordered sandwiches from Buckhorn Grill.  We had 5 different types of BBQ sandwiches, charred veggies, mashed potatoes, a few sliced tri-tip slabs and salad.  For apps we went to Costco and bought gourmet sausages and meatballs, cheeses, crackers, pretty much anything people could munch on.  It was served buffet style and the majority of drinks were in glass bottles.

Each table had a mason jar with burlap, lace and baby's breath, a burlap runner, pine cones, and a dollar store frame with a post card from different national parks.

My Godmother baked our cake and cupcakes and setup our table with old Christmas decorations and pieces of wood we'd collected from people we knew.

I'm not really a cake person and neither is he so we decided on just a 2 tier cake to make my mom happy, chocolate, vanilla and lemon cupcakes, oreos, donuts, cookies and alot of different Persian sweets that my mother-in-law got for us.

We tied chiffon strips of fabric to twine and draped it between the 2 trees for our altar backdrop

I  used 12x12 scrapbook paper from Michaels (when it was 7/$1, so cheap) and cut them into small pieces.  I stamped a pine cone in the middle and wrote the persons name and table number.  I bought a clearance frame and stapled twine across it and used little clothespins to keep them there.

We rented mason jar cups and napkins and had them at each table with the favor which was a hear shaped seedbomb.  I printed the seed packets from here and folded a few every day, the plus side of a long engagement.

 I bought my dress on Etsy for $250 and just had it shortened to above the knee and taken in at the waist.

I have an obsession with journals so he bought me one to fill out together and a Blake Griffin Clippers jersey, woohoo!

I printed the table numbers to look like campsite markers and glued them to wooden dowels

Badgley Mischka Ina pumps, I later changed into the B.M. Sahara flats

Sign painted by my M.O.H. Cady

I made our programs out of cardstock, twine and printer paper.  I just used a pine tree stamp to put on each one.  I also used the stamp on the paper bags for the trail mix as well as on our thank you notes.

I needed something to make the program a little more fun so I found the tree astrology, everyone loved it.

Tree astrology programs

Crossword puzzle maker

On each seat we had a program and a tissue packet that I made from glassine envelopes, travel sized tissue and washi tape.

Another sign painted on burlap by Cady

Some my favorite pictures from our ABSOLUTELY AMAZING photographer, Ebony

Seriously the best day of my life.  It went by just as fast as everyone said it would so I made sure to take time to just be in the moment.  My friends and family were so important in making this happen, the day of the wedding everyone was at the venue in their work clothes hanging up lights and setting tables.  Every time I look at these pictures I remember how extremely blessed I am to have a wonderful family, amazing friends and the best husband.

My honey, Boo Boo

Moving down to Orange County was not only a big change for me but for my little pup, Boo Radley (my husband already had been living here for grad school so he's whatevs).  At home Boo had our big German Shepherd Rocky [r.i.p.] to play with and our rabbit Winky to chase.  Now he's here and it's just us so he just lays around all day.  I tried to take him to the dog park but the dogs around here literally just sit on the bench at the parks next to their owners and watch.  I've been taking him for runs and buying him new toys, hopefully he'll snap out of it.

My little sleepy love

Veggin Out

Since we've been on our own we've decided to try and be as healthy as possible.  Not at all counting our first week in the apartment when we didn't have a fridge and survived on chips, cookies and beef jerky.  Having been vegan on and off for a couple of years we figured we might as well go balls to the wall and try it.  We're relatively lenient though, we'll eat eggs every once in a while or have meat when we go out but at home there's no dairy or meat in our fridge.  So far it's been pretty good, we're having to get inventive and usually we just make alot of Asian food.

Homemade pizzas with vegan cheese

Instead of roasted marshmallows on our camping trip we roasted bananas & stuck chocolate inside

We live near Little Saigon so there's lots of Vietnamese food, my favorite being Tofu Banh Mi and Tofu Pho 

I've gotten a little homesick for my Dad's arabic food so I made a lentil dish called Mujaddarah with a salad

Made a lasagna with spaghetti squash instead of noodle and some soy cheese, so good.

Grilled fake cheese sandwich.  Galaxy Nutritional Foods makes these Veggie Slices that melt perfectly and are the best tasting I've had so far.

Instead of our usual chips and crap our beach snacks look like this now

 We're both lactose intolerant and have become OBSESSED with the shaved ice at Sticky Fingers in Irvine.  The shaved ice is so powdery like snow, I can't even explain.  Just go get it.

It was rainy down here for one day so I took advantage and made some root soup with potatoes, yams and carrots.  So unbelievably good.

Now I'm just hungry.