// fairly delicious vegan pasta nonsense//

yes that’s the official recipe title/

Okay so I haven’t been cooking very much lately unless slicing a banana into yogurt counts. Last night I was falling asleep super hungry and thought up this recipe. TBH I was worried because I was in a partial dream state when I invented it so ya know. 

Anyway I cooked up some trader joe’s brown rice macaroni pasta in a pot with some frozen broccoli. 

broccoli is my go to vegetable. Also I buy most fruits/veggies frozen because I’m usually home every other day and fresh stuff goes bad pretty quickly. Anyway, I am almost always craving broccoli. 

Then I pan fried a vegan black bean burger, I can’t remember the brand right now, but it was good, really hearty and with millet! You totally have to pan fry it because otherwise it just isn’t good. 

Then you break up the black bean burger with the spatula, drain the pasta/broccoli, and mix it all together with some marinara-ish sauce. 

Add some pepper (dating a person who peppers everything has really opened my eyes to the wonders of pepper). 

This was really filling and good so there ya go. 

// life life life//

update on mah life, mostly so i can be excited about things. 

The past two days at my internship I got to do real things, which is very exciting because previously I was sort of doing busy work stuff. Basically now I’ve been entering the program schedule into this thing called enames which is a ratings thing apparently. And also today I had to watch a bunch of short films and take notes on them for a new film series we’re doing. Oh and now I leave an hour earlier in an attempt to avoid rush hour traffic except I still had to sit in traffic forever, BUT it was very sunny and pretty out. 

So I got home and made ***vegan macaroni salad*** and I’ve been craving it forever and it totally lived up to my dreams/expectations. 

Then I chatted with Jrnny and got excited all over again about her visit!!!! I pick her up tomorrow at le airport! And we’re gonna see Brth and I’m very excited for that <3

Oh and I watched the new episode of Teen Mom. 

And finally, in conclusion, etc, etc, RLW gets here in 8 days! 

// Checking in: Still a vegan. //

Okay so I just counted and apparently it’s only been 3 weeks since I switched to doing the vegan thing, though it feels like it’s been much longer. I feel a little bit better about how I’ve been not doing great on some things knowing that it hasn’t actually been that long. By not doing great I mean primarily that I haven’t been planning far enough in advanced and end up not packing enough snacks for the days when I have to be gone for like 10 hours. 

Yesterday I did a pretty good job, I was like one snack short of perfection. I don’t remember what I had for breakfast. I think I was running late so I grabbed a builder bar. My film crew went out to lunch and I knew from experience that the place we were going didn’t have any vegan options besides a grapefruit. I also knew that I had already spent all my money on groceries so I couldn’t buy said grapefruit. So I packed a sandwich (Ezekiel bread, chipotle hummus, tofurkey slices, pickles and lettuce) and awkwardly ate it at the diner. But I bought coffee so I didn’t feel as bad about doing that. I had bell pepper slices and hummus for a snack and was totally hummus’d out after that. That’s another challenge for me-variety. At some point I ate another builder bar. Those guys have a ton of protein and fill me up. For dinner I had black beans, corn, tofu, and salsa which is totally my go to dinner meal. Sometimes I’ll add brown rice but most of the time I’m too tired/hungry to cook it. 

Tomorrow I am going to be away from my dorm from 9AM to 11PM so I need to bring a ton of food. 

I’m still drinking a ludicrous amount of water and it’s usually my only liquid besides coffee. 

So far what I really need to work on is the planning because being hungry makes me tired. 

So far what I like is how I never have stomach aches/don’t feel bloated/gross like how I would feel after eating heavily processed and animal-product-filled foods. 

It really helps to have friends who bake and cook vegan even if they don’t keep vegan. I know I’ve said that before but seriously. Jrnny and Brth bake pretty much exclusively vegan now even though they are omnivores. 

So yeah. Buy salsa, find nice friends, go vegan. 

// drive is bananas//

yesterday i stood in between my bed and my roommates bed and stared out across the way to the business men working. 

also i was eating a banana and dancing  undulating to the sound track of Drive. which is great btw. 

today i am sitting in my common room/kitchen licking vegan banana bread batter off a spatula while staring at the door and listening to the sound track from The Social Network. 

so i mean, i really like bananas and also movie sound tracks. 

// a list//

okay so most likely none of you know my roommate, Johanna because she refuses to have any sort of internet presence, but she does this thing where she will list off the reasons why she really likes something. This is made funnier by the fact that she usually likes everything. A lot. This is a habit all of my friends have picked up, so I was here at work thinking of all the reasons why I like being vegan so far. Keep in mind it’s only been four days, but I thought I’d share it with y’all. Also it doesn’t include the very obvious positive of not harming animals!

1. It’s really easy. Seriously. I haven’t been vegetarian for a full year, but that was fairly easy for me because I didn’t like pork or any red meat, and only really ate chicken. A couple weeks ago I switched to almond milk so the only dairy I was eating was yogurt and cheese. Also I ate a lot of eggs. There are vegan cheeses and I like tofu a lot so I’m not worried about losing protein from not eating greek yogurt anymore.

2. It’s making me cook/bake more already. Which I also like. 

3. For some reason I have been drinking a ton more water and while it probably has nothing to do with the switch I’m gonna pretend like it does. 

4. I haven’t gotten stomach aches like I had been having. That was one of the reasons why I stopped drinking regular milk, and I think cutting cheese/milk in coffee drinks all together is going to help. 

5. I’m spending less money on processed foods/snacks at places. I can’t eat stuff at starbucks so I can’t buy stuff there. FANTASTIC. 

6. It forces me to plan more because I can’t just buy something to nom. Which is good because I’ll save money/eat less junk foods. 

7. All my friends/roommates are really nice about it and remind me to check ingredients and help me think of alternatives. 

So yeah. That’s how I feel so far. It took me a really long time to switch over to being vegan, and now that I have it doesn’t seem so difficult. Luckily at home home I’m surrounded by people who are vegan/vegetarian and my brother (louddetective) has been very patient in answering my crazy texts about toothpaste and gum and builders bars. 

// guys//

best breakfast ever = toast with crunchy peanut butter sprinkled with vegan chocolate chips and covered in the slices of an entire banana. 

also coffee.