Bookworm Wednesday

I almost forgot that today was Wednesday, but with a few hours left I am here to get my bookworm on.

This week's review is actually a trilogy which includes

The Forest of hands and teeth

The Dead-Tossed Waves

and

The Dark and Hollow Places

by Carrie Ryan

While the books are meant as a trilogy they don't actually have the same main character, though they are interconnected.  The first book is The forrest of hands and teeth.  In an undefined future after some sort of zombie apocalypse, Mary lives in a tiny village that is hyper religious and surrounded by a fence that keeps them "safe" from zombies.  Mary's mother was from "outside" and she always told her daughter of the sea.  When a zombie attack goes terribly wrong the village ends up in a lot of trouble and Mary and a few of her friends flee into the forest in hopes of finding safety.

The next book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, moves many years further into the future and stars Gabry, who lives in a well protected city by the sea.  In a moment of teenage weakness, she follows some friends and her crush over the wall into a zombie infested park and of course terror ensues.  While Gabry escapes her friends find trouble with the town's officials and are banished to military duties outside the town.  Gabry decides to search for her crush and spends time travel back towards the village from the first book and then in search of the Dark city, which offers possible 'safety'.

The last book, The Dark and Hollow Places, takes place in the Dark city, and stars Annah.  Annah is alone, her brother having left with the military and she fights to survive.  In the third book characters from the other books begin to meet and storylines conclude, well as much as anything can conclude in such a world.

My personal opinion is that the first two books are amazing.  By far the The Forest of Hands and Teeth is my favourite. Mary has such a longing, that Ryan writes in such a striking manner that you really feel her urge to seek out something, anything that has meaning, even in the face of overwhelming odds her spirit carries her forward.  The Dead-Tossed waves has a completely different feel, where Mary was adventurous, Gabry is cautious.  Gabry has no wants, no desires outside the safe life she has always known.  Her fear is palpable but she is no less brave than Mary.  As for Annah in The Dark and Hollow places, which was my least favourite of the series, she is strength personified.  Her hopes and fears take a back seat to the simple act of surviving and when she discovers things outside of survival it is both sweet and fragile.  

Small complaints, yes this is written for teens, but the love triangles are slightly forced and sometimes take away from the movement of the story and also seem a little cheesy.  

I love me some zombies.  and Ryan doesn't try to event the wheel here, her zombies are traditional and scary, and secondary to her characters who are the main focus.  They are scary and satisfying but should not deter those who are not horror fans from picking up these books.  While the last book doesn't have the same emotional impact as the first two.  All in all I highly recommend the series.

Day 30

And so we have arrived.  Day 30 of the 30 day vegan challenge.  It some ways I feel like it has gone by super quick and in other ways I feel like it has been forever. 

For breakfast today I ate an apple.  I ate an apple because it snowed last night and that meant I had to rush around to clear the car off and I didn't have time to make anything else for breakfast.

For lunch I had an Amy's burrito and some cabbage salad.

For dinner I decided that I needed to end with a grand finale.  While at work I decided I would make the acorn squash empanadas.  Upon my arrival home I realized that I didn't have any cornmeal.  This didn't prove too much of a problem, I just made a regular kind of dough.  Being the lazy kind of cooker I am, I also didn't bother getting out the recipe and just threw a bunch of stuff in the frying pan.  Acorn squash (I baked ahead of time) onions, zucchini, mushrooms, yellow peppers and some garlic.

I decided not to make individual empanadas and went with this cool braided loaf that I saw on pinterest (my new obsession)  Now the person who posted it used it to make a pizza but I thought it would work just as well for this so I rolled out the dough and cut the sides into strips

I filled the middle part with my frying pan concoction and then folded the strips over

Finished braiding and then rubbed the top with a little oil and garlic

Now the smarter thing would have been to roll the dough out and then put in ON the cookie sheet, fill and braid.  I however did not think of this and had to move this lovely loaf over to a cookie sheet.  I managed with it only falling slightly apart.  I then baked it at 350 until it was baked,  I believe this was probably like 30 to 40 minutes.  I made some cucumber and yellow pepper salad with pesto dressing.  and voila dinner!

Conclusion.  Good.  It was kind of like a meatless meat pie.  This however is far too much.  I think I ate half.  The salad was yummy as well.  Len liked it as well, though he doused his with ketchup.

Day 28 & 29

Hello everyone, I am sure you missed me very much yesterday.  I was away on a work related course, but also I had the great pleasure of staying with my friends Peter and Aaron and their super adorable puggle Elton.  So here is a quick recap of the last two vegan days.

Monday breakfast I had an english muffin with peanut butter and bananas
Lunch I had vegetable soup and leftover stir fry in a wrap. 
Dinner.  Well I didn't exactly eat dinner, I left after work to drive to Toronto, in Orangeville I realized I was too hungry, so I ate a small french fry from McDonalds (tasty but hardly healthy). 
My GPS stopped working, I took the wrong exit, I had a weird detour, and when I arrived on Peter's street I found out the number in my cell phone was outdated.  luckily Peter's mother's phone number has been the same forever, and after a quick call back home, I got a hold of Peter and all was good. 
I then ate some chips and salsa, watched some Gigolos and went to sleep.

Tuesday morning Peter and I headed out to the Eaton centre and there, at their very fancy food court we had some crepes at Crepes Delicious. 

This was my breakfast.  It is called the black and white, and it is a crepe filled with bananas and hazelnut spread.  The restaurant didn't lie, this crepe WAS delicious, though I totally could not finish it.

Here is Peter about to dig in to his tutti frutti, which was bananas, strawberries and hazelnut spread.

Then we got our shop on, and within ten minutes I found exactly what I was looking for. 
Kill some more time

Then ate lunch at Extreme Pita

Veggie pita... tasty but hardly extreme. 

I ate dinner at C5 which is the restaurant at the ROM.  This is a very fancy restaurant with an amazing view of the city.  It was however very meaty.  The hors d'oeurves were meat sticks and fois gras (so gross) but also sunchokes, which though I am slightly unsure what they are, were super tasty.  Then we had a small salad, with apples and bitter greens (ok) Then I got risotto, since everyone else was having lamb and beef.  The risotto was fine but kind of boring.  Lastly and probably the saddest was dessert, I got sherbert balls.  These were super gross, they tasted fermented or something.  He told me they were apple and pear, though one was green and one was brown, and both were gross.  Everyone else had lovely Chocolate mouse cake with caramelized white chocolate (I don't know what that is but I am pretty sure I want it in my mouth).  Despite its appealing nature, I stuck with it and didn't cave, even thought the vegan dessert was gross.

Now I didn't feel comfortable whipping out my camera at this really fancy restaurant so I don't have any pictures to share.

Christmas cheer

I love Christmas.  There is something about how festive it is that just makes me so very happy.  I love the decorations, the songs, and even the hustle of a over crowded mall.  I love the snow (though we don't have snow right now)  I love getting together with family and friends, I love the food, and the traditions.  It is cliche to say it is my favourite time of the year, but it is also true.  (Though I have to say that Canada day is a very close second)

Tonight I decided to decorate the tree, well one of the trees, since this year we have decided to have two, since I mostly live downstairs and previously the tree has always been upstairs I wanted two so I could enjoy it more.  So since there was going to be two trees and I didn't want to just split the decorations, but I didn't want to spend a lot on new stuff either, so I made some decorations and raided the dollar store.  We have gone with a blue and silver theme, and I got a pretty star for the top, I always thought stars made more sense then angels. 

It does not seem to matter how nicely you put Christmas lights away they always seem to come out of the box a tangled mess.  I had bought new LED fancy ball lights, that didn't work, so I returned them and bought myself a cute sweater.  Good for me, bad for the tree.  However we got enough blue ones working to make a sparkling tree.  I will attack the upstair's tree sometime soon and eagerly await everything that this season has to bring.

Day 27

This morning I had the great pleasure of sleeping in, and by sleeping in I mean really sleeping in, it was almost 11 when I finally rolled out of bed.  Thanks Len for taking the dog out so he wouldn't bother me. 

So for breakfast I finished off the Sunrise cereal. 

Lunch, well I sort of snacked as the day went by.  grapes here, nuts and dates there, and some chips with this really great garlic dip we bought at pumpkinfest in Port Elgin.  (the dip is from cinnamon hill farms) 

Dinner, I made an Amy's burrito, normally I buy the black beans and cheese, but since cheese was out I bought the vegan rice and beans version.  Then I cooked up some more beans (well I needed to finish them from the other day) and then made a little veggie stir fry, and voila dinner !

Conclusion. Yummy.  Though I would have to have to say I prefer the burrito with cheese, it has a better texture, this burrito was quite tasty.  Now Len had a slightly different version of burrito and his was a little spicy, though he likes spice so it was a good thing he got that one.  Veggies and beans were also yummy.

For dessert I made some banana ice cream and cut a very slim slice of the 'cheesecake'

Conclusion.  Yummy, Having a very small piece was a much better idea and the ice cream was a very good addition.  The banana flavour went really well with the peanut butter chocolate. 

Day 26

Good morning.

Wonderful Saturday morning meant I got to sleep in.  Then in an odd series of events, I went out to run errands and didn't eat any breakfast.  So when I came home I had some waffles, mostly because I stopped by the farmer's market and picked up some maple syrup, so I felt the need to use it.

Lunch was more like a snack cause I had breakfast so late, I ate bunch of grapes.

For dinner, my friend Cathy came to visit and so we went out to Kelsey's.  I had their seven vegetable fettucini with pesto and a house salad.  I am going to say that it was good but not great.  I liked that the broccoli was cooked properly and not mushy, but there was a lot of onions, and not too much sauce.  Cathy totally ate cheesy dip and cheesy bacon covered pasta, poor little piggies. 

For dessert we came home to have my homemade Chocolate peanut butter 'cheesecake'.  I made a graham cracker/oreo crumb pie crust, and filled it with Toffutti cream cheese, peanut butter and chocolate chips.  Baked for forty minutes.  and voila dessert

Conclusion.  way too crazy sweet!  It was like a seven layer sugar mess.  The cake itself tasted like cookie dough, which is good, but pretty much only for bite, after that you begin to worry about cavities and diabetes.  Cathy and I managed almost half our pieces, Len ate all of his, but I am pretty sure he would eat a sugar cube. 

Cathy and Len 'enjoying' a little sugar rush, at least we won't have to worry that Cathy will fall asleep on her ride home.  Notice that heavenly aura around Len's cake.

Day 25

Ran out of the house this morning with no time to make breakfast so I grabbed an apple.  better than nothing I guess.

Lunch I had baked beans, and a toasted tomato sandwich.

Dinner, after 25 days of making our vegan dinners tonight I am tired have a headache and still this stupid little cough.  So Len is making me dinner which is sweet.  He is making some Tofurky pizza, which I haven't had yet but my conclusion prediction is tasty. 

Day 24

So we are getting close to the end of the month and things are going just swimmingly except I have a stupid little cough that won't go away.

For breakfast I had some Vanilla Sunrise cereal.

Lunch I had last night's leftovers, minus the awful vinegar potatoes.

Dinner.  Well tonight is our first repeat.  I was going to make a stir fry with some tofu I had marinating in the fridge, but we still had two crusty buns leftover, So I decided to just make a tofu sandwich.  Then I cooked up some corn, and veggies and voila dinner!

Conclusion: tasty, and Len really enjoyed it as well.

for dessert I had some oil of oregano and a halls.  :(

Day 23

Hello all.

For breakfast this morning I had an english muffin with peanut butter and a banana. 

Lunch I had red pepper and black bean soup, with cut up veggies and a tomato sandwich

Dinner, I made "chicken" burgers with coleslaw and tomatoes on some great buns.  Then as my something new I made salt and vinegar potatoes.   First boil the potatoes in vinegar for five minutes, then remove from heat and let sit for 30 minutes.  Just a warming when boiling vinegar there are very dangerous vinegar fumes that when inhaled cause some choking and eye burning.  Place potatoes on greased cookie sheet and salt.  Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, flip and bake another 10.  I also made some green beans, broccoli and cauliflower.  Voila dinner!

Conclusion.  My sandwich was delicious, chicken is the obviously the easiest of the meats to fake cause it was super yummy.  The potatoes on the other hand were all kinds of yuck.  The vinegar was over powering.  and inside the beans were an explosion of vinegar.  Sadly I think the better idea would have been to make regular potatoes and then if you wish add a little vinegar.  Even Len who douses his french fries in vinegar thought the veggies were too vinegary. 

Bookworm Wednesday

Happy Hump Day.  Today's book of choice is...

The Psychopath test by Jon Ronson

This book is a bit of a departure for me, for it is non-fiction.  Ronson takes a look at psychopathy.  He speaks with both psychopaths and the psychiatrists who diagnosed them as such.  He looks at the system devised by Robert Hare in deduces who has psychopathic tendencies, and visits a young man imprisoned in a psychiatric unit for being a psychopath.  He meets with the heads of corporations who have been dubbed "psychos".  He also delves into the sometimes odd treatments used on psychopaths. 

The best part about this book is Ronson's writing style.  While some research books read like textbooks on extremely boring subjects, this book is written more like a novel.  From a first person perspective Ronson describes his travels and meetings.  I never felt like I was 'studying', the book was kept light despite its rather heavy subject matter and I moved through it quite quickly. 

This book was actually quite fascinating.  First there are the riddles and conspiracy theories, there are the psychopaths themselves, and there are some really whacked out psychiatrists who had some very odd ways of dealing with these "mental conditions" including a whole lot of LSD.  Surprisingly Canada plays a large role in treating psychopaths, Robert Hare being a Canadian himself. 

Overall I found this book to be a really interesting, and educational read with the feel of a mystery novel. 

Day 22

Short post today.

Breakfast I had cereal, in a hurry as I ran out the door

Lunch, toasted tomato sandwich and roasted pepper soup.

Dinner.  We had to go to Len's uncle's tonight because Len was doing some computer work for him, and we were changing to our snow tires, (even though the snow is all gone) So his uncle made us dinner, and since he is a meaty kind of fellow, I ended up having a salad.  Funny, he made pea soup, which I didn't eat because I thought I am sure that has cream, and upon a further look I am pretty sure it had ham, not sure how he thought that was a good choice for me,  but hey no complaints when people do the making, and my salad was tasty.  Needless to say I was a little hungry when I got home so I had a peanut butter english muffin.

No pictures tonight.  See y'all tomorrow.

Day 21

This morning I had as I believed I would a very hard time getting out of bed.  I did get up in time to eat a bowl of cereal.  This time I bought Vanilla sunrise instead of maple.  It was good, since it was made with real vanilla it didn't have an overwhelming vanilla flavour.  Still I think I like the maple better.

Lunch I had last night's leftovers.  still good

Dinner.  Tonight I decided to make yesterday's perogies.  This turned out to be quite intense.  First I baked some potatoes, then I made the dough.  Dough is fairly simple, flour, water, salt, and a little oil.  Once the potatoes were ready, I mashed them up with some cook mushrooms, onions and garlic.  Then you roll out the dough and use a glass to cut out circles (like you are making cookies).  Then you fill the circles with the potato mixture and pinch together.  Boil this perogies for about five minutes, then fry with a little garlic.  After awhile I had a system going to filling, boiling and frying.  I also cooked up some carrots, plantains and made a bit of cabbage salad.  After all that work voila dinner!

original perogie recipe from theppk.com

Conclusion. good.  The potato filling was delicious, tasted like thanksgiving (most likely the seasoning, had a distinct stuffing flavouring).  The outside dough was not quite as pleasant.  I think it was the quinoa flour perhaps if I had regular flour it would have tasted better.  I loved the plantains.  Len thought the perogies were good, but wished the insides were more mashed (not realizing how long it took me to make dinner).  This dinner took a very long time, definitely should have made on Sunday, and really I can just buy premade perogies and they are tasty.

For dessert I made Vegan gingerbread men.  Now here things got a little interesting.  The recipe called for ginger, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon.  check check and check.  molasses, check, baking powder and soda, double check.  sugar (well it asked for sweetener but I just used brown sugar) and flour,  well now I have a little quinoa flour left but my dough is very sticky, I need more.  Now I could go to the store and get some, but instead I just used some pancake mix.  Now one could have adjusted for the sugar and baking powder in the pancake mix, but no, I  just added it until the dough seemed the correct consistency.  Then I rolled in icing sugar since I had no more flour (or pancake mix at this point) cut out some men and baked for 8 minutes.

Original recipe from peasandthankyou.com

Conclusion: tasty.  The best part is that they were soft.  I dislike it when cookies get too crunchy.  They weren't overly gingery but I liked that.  Len and I had fun decorating them, I know you are probably shocked that those weren't decorated by two year olds.

Enjoy my sexy cookies.

Day 20

Sunday morning sleep in.  I am going to have trouble going back to work tomorrow.  So this morning it became very evident that I needed to buy some groceries.  So for breakfast I repeated yesterdays waffle breakfast.

As I write this I realize that I didn't actually eat lunch, which is probably why I ended up having dinner at 530.

So for dinner the plan was to make homemade perogies, however when I got home from running around I really didn't feel like making something that was going to take that long.  So I cooked up some spaghetti and made a vegetarian scallopine.  It kind of is like chicken parmesan but of course without the chicken. Covered with tomato sauce and voila dinner!

  Conclusion; very tasty, as you can see by the dirty fork that I started to eat it before I realized that I hadn't taken a picture.  However this is the third time I have made a pasta dish.  The funny thing is I always complain that when you go to any sort of event the vegetarian option is always pasta.  Additionally pasta can add on the pounds, so I will try to make more interesting and possibly healthy options for the next ten days. 

I went to have some dessert but the cashew frozen pie had developed freezer burn, and also was a little watery.  So we shall skip dessert tonight.

Day 19

Loveliness is sleeping in.  So lucky that this morning was Saturday and I got to sleep in.  When I finally got around to getting up it was too late to go to the farmer's market.  Which was sad because I am all out of maple syrup.  But I still wanted waffles, so I improvised with some bananas and hazelnut spread.

Conclusion.  Very yummy.  The hazelnut spread is slightly chocolatey, so you get the sinful delight of having dessert for breakfast.

For lunch I finished the last bit of yesterday's pasta.

For dinner, I made potato soup (ok I didn't so much make it as heat some up) and a cook veggie wrap.  Cooked up some zucchini, mushrooms, orange peppers and beans, and wrapped them up and voila dinner!

Conclusion: good.  It is hardly what I would call a thrilling dinner, more of my go to lunch, cause it is fast and easy, but I spent most of today cleaning up and doing laundry so I didn't feel like getting all that involved with dinner preparations.  Len liked his just fine.

I did make some dessert.  I cook some bananas in sugar and ate it with banana ice cream.  I would put up a picture but it looks a little like mushy grossness, and it would take away from its deliciousness. 

Festival of northern lights

 It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  We've had the first snow, Vita soy has their mint chocolate soy milk out, and its time for the northern lights.

One of the great things about a small town is that when there is an event the whole town gathers.  Every November and right through to the new year the downtown core is lit up, well I guess you would say lit up like a Christmas tree.  Tonight was the opening ceremonies.  There is just a small amount of snow on the ground, and though the wind was a little chilly it was a nice night to be out, and so most of the town was there.

Even though the lights are pretty much the same every year I can't help but want to go.  For the last 24 years lights, displays and decorations have been hung from the chi cheemaun in the habour, all along the river and down into Harrison park, more than 18K of lights.  At 7 fireworks are let off, and then a lucky kid who won the colouring contest counts down and lights up the streets.  There are horse-pull carriage rides, clowns, hot chocolate, the chip wagon, and moonlight madness.

crowds as the lights come on

Nothing says Christmas like dinosaurs

Christmas carols in front of the library

Happy Holiday season

For a unique view check out this video

Day 18

This morning I thought I really need to eat those mini loaves, sadly upon opening their container I found they had started to grow a little furry.  One downside of making your own stuff is there are no preservatives, so things tend to go bad a little quicker.  Upside, no preservatives so you don't have to eat a lot of weird unpronounceable chemicals.   Back up plan, I just made a shake.  mango juice, and berry blend, it was very berry strong but the co-workers thought it at least looked tasty.

Lunch and dinner I ate the same thing.  I made a bit of pasta, cooked up some zucchini and mushrooms and voila dinner, well first voila lunch, and later voila dinner

Conclusion.  So tasty I had it twice.  Ok I had it twice because I am lazy and I made a lot at lunch time.  This is pretty standard fair at our place during normal times, though normally we add some cheese.  I can't say I really missed the cheese.  All and all pretty good.

Now I am off to search for some tasty dessert.

Day 17

Good morning.  Up in time to make myself pretty and make breakfast.  Sunrise cereal and Len even got breakfast in bed.

Lunch was a repeat of last night's dinner, Yummy yummy.

Dinner.  Well lunch was big so dinner time didn't bring on too much of the hungries, so I made Len some meatless wings, and I made a plate of nachos.  Again not exactly big on the health front but voila dinner!

Conclusion: meh.  I only put the daiya cheese on half.  and it was a good thing, cause I definitely do not like it.  Though it melted well, it still tastes a little off to me, cheez whizzy.  The dry nachos were tasty but the toppings don't stick and they tend to get a little toasty as well.  The meatless wings were alright, Len liked his hot ones, but I think they would be better if they had a breading.

Had some cashew frozen dessert as well, yum yum.   

Day 16 Dessert

Forgot to tell you I made cashew "cheesecake".  When I made the cashew cheese for the mushroom caps, I had way too much whipped cashew left over.  So I blended them with some sugar, peanut butter, hazelnut butter and cocoa.  poured it over a graham mixture and froze.

Conclusion.  Yummy.  My blender is not the greatest and so I was unable to produce a really smooth texture.  but the nutty flavours go well and the grittiness is not off-putting.  Note if you make this remember to take it out of the freezer way ahead of time, because it tends to freeze quite solid which makes it difficult to cut. 

Day 16

This morning I was running late so I grabbed the last zucchini mini loaf.  Unfortunately the mini loaves are getting to be a little old, and very dry, but I wasn't going to waste it, or more importantly go all the way until lunch without food so I 'choked' it down. 

Lunch I took the leftover mushroom caps chopped them up and put them in a wrap with some tomatoes.  Side with a bit of terra chips and we are off and running.

Dinner I made hot dogs.  Yves vegetarian hot dogs.  I cooked up some plantains with garlic and some veggies (zucchini, asparagus and mushrooms) and voila dinner!

Conclusion: great!  I love hot dogs, it has been years since I had a 'real' hot dog, so I think they taste the same.  I am told by meat eaters that this is not true.  The plantains were done perfectly.  If you have never had plantains they are pretty much the tasty babies of potatoes and bananas.  The veggies were my three favourites done in the pan after the plantains so they too were a little garlicky.  Normally I try to stay away from juice (cause I would drink so very much of it) but this is "yellow juice" which contains vegetables as well as fruits, so I can pretend it is good.

Len didn't have dinner at home tonight, bad boy was out and had the not so vegan A&W.  Since this wasn't really his idea and he hasn't complained about anything I have made him eat, I guess I won't be too mad with him.

Bookworm Wednesday

So after the depression that was The Night Circus, I didn't get around to reading anything this week, so today's book review will be a previously enjoyed number.  A much better circus story.

The Darren Shan saga by Darren Shan

Also known as The Cirque du Freak

The cirque du freak is actually a series of twelve books.  They follow the adventures of the main character also named Darren Shan, as he becomes a vampire, lives with the mysterious circus, fights evil vampires, travels to the vampire clan, fights for his rites, fights big evils, and learns truths both about himself and the world in general.   

Book one involves Darren and his friend sneaking into a circus, where a vampire is one of the acts.  Darren steals a very special spider, and this one act of defiance forever changes his life.

Book two involves Darren become a vampire himself, and becoming the assistant to Mr. Crepsley

Book three involves traveling to confront an evil vampire in Mr. Crepsley's hometown

Book four involves travel to meet the vampire clans

Book five involves Darren's trials in becoming an initiated vampire

Book six involves sussing out a traitor

Book seven involves the search for the Lord of the evil vampires

Book eight involves travel and meeting of past friends in search of help

Book nine involves a showdown

Book ten involves side journey involving one of the "little people"

Book eleven involves learning the truth about the past and connections between characters

Book twelve involves the final fight.

The books are fast reads, each only being a few hundred pages long, and definitely written in a child-like prose.  They're story is simple but with enough twists and turns to maintain the reader's interest.  Darren's character starts out a shy awkward kid but grows into a capable and even heroic 'adult'.  His relationships with the other characters are complex and interesting, especially with his "maker".   I recommend reading the books in a row because characters pop back up later and it is helpful if the events of the earlier books are still fresh in your mind.  

This is how a circus story should be.  All of the characters are interesting and have depth.  One of Darren's best friends is a snake boy, there is a bearded lady, and small "little people" who are odd and do extremely odd things.  Though the story is childish, and hardly a literary masterpiece it is enjoyable on many levels.  It was fast paced, and for a series of twelve books in had few down moments.  All in all a very enjoyable read.

Side note a movie has been made.  It is sort of a smooshed up version of the first few books

The movie was a huge disappointment, I believe part of the problem is that it was several books in one movie.  Now I understand that that would have been necessary based on how short the books were, but they seemed to arbitrarily takes plot points from several of the books, putting parts from much later books in this first movie.  They also added a monkey girl character that did not exist in the books, and the added love interest just seemed forced to me.  There does not seem to be any plans to make more movies. 

Day 15

Breakfast this morning was Sunrise organic cereal with almond milk.  The cereal was very tasty, but there were miniature corn pop-like pieces that hurt the roof of my mouth.  Len liked the cereal and apparently has a much tougher mouth roof that I, since he didn't think there were any problems with the cereal.

Lunch was a tomato bagel, veggies and a few Terra chips.

Dinner was mushroom cap pizza.  To make this you need stuffer mushrooms, or you could use portabellini's or even portabellas.  I used stuffer mushrooms.  clean and remove the stem, then scoop in some pizza sauce, cashew cheese, and toppings of choice. I used orange peppers.  To make cashew cheese, you soak cashew cheese over night, then blend with a little almond milk, garlic, nutritional yeast and garlic.  Bake the filled caps at 350 for 10 mins and then broil for another few minutes.  I made some cooked carrots and asparagus.  and Voila dinner!

Original recipe from Ohsheglows.com.  Her mushrooms caps looked much nicer than mine.  

Conclusion: good.  The mushroom pizza caps did not really taste like pizza, and the cashew cheese really didn't taste like cheese, but the nutty flavour worked well with the mushrooms.  The carrots and asparagus were very tasty.  Len was not impressed with the caps.  He apparently was hoping for something a little more pizza-like and wanted me to make them with the fake daiya cheese, which I find gross.

For a snack I ate the guacamole that I made last night and had a lime soda.   The guacamole was made with avocado, tomato, onion, and garlic.  The lime soda I just bought.

Conclusion: gross.  Now I don't know if this was because I left it overnight, notice its brownish hue or perhaps I just made it wrong.  Len disliked it a lot as well.  It had no real flavour, perhaps I needed more garlic, I am unsure.  The lime soda was also gross, I thought it was going to taste like lime-ade, but it almost had some sort of creamy taste.  Needless to say snack time was a large disappointment. 

Day 14

Well sadly all the snow has gone away.  Felt very sleepy this morning, should have had a pick me up shake, but I opted for a tasty zucchini mini loaf instead.

Lunch I had banana peanut butter roll ups and some veggies with humus.

I did stop by the grocery store after work, so there were more options for dinner.  Now tonight's plan was to make BLTs.  Mostly because Len wanted some 'bacon'.  Now at the best of times, I do not enjoy real bacon, pork has always seemed a little gross to me.  But since fake meat doesn't always taste exactly the same, I thought I would give it a try.  I also made some homemade onion rings.  They are made much the same way as the tempura veggies but just with oniony insides.  and Voila dinner!

Conclusion.  Bacon is gross even when it is fake.  As you can see it didn't even make it to make sandwich.  Len ate his and said it was ok, didn't really taste like bacon though.  Now I didn't buy any lettuce while I was out because I believed I had some at home, but my home lettuce was mushy are gross, so my BLT turned out to just be a T.  A very tasty T.  The onion rings on the other hand were a big hit.  I had mine with a little plum sauce.   Len very much enjoyed the onion rings as well.

No dessert tonight, I did make some guacamole to have as a movie snack tonight, but dinner wasn't ready until almost 8 and I hardly felt like eating anymore this evening, so that will have to be a tomorrow treat.

day 12 & 13

So for the last two weeks I have had all my meals at home, which is practical and easy.  I have everything I need, and none of the evil temptations I don't.  This weekend I went to visit a friend several hours away.  This meant relying on others for my meals, or worse finding something to eat while out.  Up until now I have been pleasantly surprised by my lack of cravings.  I totally consider myself a cheesaholic but I haven't really missed it in any major way.  This weekend offered me a different challenge, the proximity to chocolate, good store bought, full of milk chocolate, delicious and easy access chocolate.  I was strong and kept away from it all.

Saturday breakfast I had a pumpkin mini loaf.  Which was yummy

Lunch I ate some cut up veggies, and ginger crackers.

Luckily I have awesome friends and Jacq made me an awesome vegan dinner.  Her favourite salad, which involved mixed greens with avocado, tomato, walnuts, cranberries, and a homemade vinaigrette.   Yes thats right a homemade dressing, with olive oil, some sort of vinegar and raspberry jam.  Very impressive and very yummy.  She also made some cooked root veggies, potatoes, carrots, beets, and asparagus in a garlic sauce.  Also impressive and yummy.  So without doing anything myself Voila dinner!

Conclusion, very tasty, and extra great because I had to do nothing to prepare it.

Later in the evening I resisted the urge to eat snickers, or twix bars which were happily finding their way into Jacq's mouth and had a peanut butter wrap.  It hit the spot and kept me on track to resist evil beautiful chocolate.

Sunday morning I ate some fried zucchini with left over root veggies for breakfast.

Sunday lunch we ate out.  Now this poses a different challenge because it is difficult to know whether things contain dairy, or if "fast food" places even offer a vegetarian option let alone a vegan one.  However a very nice worker at a greek restaurant gave me my options and I had a nice greek pita with some of the tastiest fries ever.  It was nice to have such a helpful server, and great to find good and great tasting food.

Sunday dinner.  I arrived back home to no plan and no groceries, so I had leftovers, which were fine, and good to use up but not to exciting to write about. 

This week's menu is not planned and I didn't make it out to get groceries so we shall see how the rest of the week goes.

Day 11

Woke up this morning to a wonderful surprise...  It snowed last night!  The rooftops and grass are white, and the trees on the escarpment branches are covered in a crisp white coating.  Some people hate winter but I think it is beautiful.  I love the chill in the air, how you can see your breath,  the crunch of snow underfoot and all things Christmas.  Len and I definitely do not see eye to eye on this point, as I was giddy with excitement he was a grump.  Despite his grumpiness I made us both breakfast shakes, green goddess with strawberries, bananas and mangoes.  Kind of grey looking.  Len like his.  I however left my glass bottle at work and had to use my stainless steel container which gave the shake an odd flavour, not sure what it last contained.

Lunch was leftover pot pie and the last of the burgers.

Dinner was Tofurkey pizza.  Now there are many vegan products on the market and though I would rather make things from natural ingredients then eat the fake meats and cheeses, sometimes a pre-made meal is just convenient.  I got a 'cheese' pizza and Len got a 'pepperoni'.  I added mushrooms and zucchini.  Added a side of salt and vinegar chips and Voila dinner!!

Conclusion: good.  This is by far the least healthy meal I have made, but hey this is a vegan challenge not a diet, you have to have fun sometime.  The 'cheese' did melt, but it was a very soft nature like a brie or havarti.  The toppings didn't actually stay on top but they did add some taste to a rather bland meal.   and hey who doesn't like chips.   One small problem, I ate half the pizza and I was still hungry, though I was good and didn't go back to eat the other half. 

The colder weather brings out the urge in me to bake.  I also had some left over pumpkin from the pumpkin mac and cheese I made last week.  So I decided to make mini zucchini loaves and mini pumpkin loaves.

Straight out of the oven with melty Earth balance 'butter' spread...  So yummy.  This is the zucchini loaf, which was good but not too sweet, haven't tried the pumpkin yet.

Happy snow!

Day 10

Up and ready for work and sadly today is Len's day off so as I rush to get ready, (I rush because I tend to stay in bed too long) he is snug as a bug in bed.  However being the nice girl I am, I made him a shake along with mine.  This morning was banana mango in carrot juice again.  Len's conclusion: tasty, after he whined cause I wouldn't tell him what was in it, but he finally did drank it.  Honestly did he think I would poison him, it was bright orange so it couldn't have anything all that weird in it.

Lunch.  Well today was a weird work day and I was all over the place, so I couldn't come home and make my own lunch.  So I ate almonds, dates, and bought some veggie sushi.  I was disappointed in the sushi, it was not nearly as good as the homemade stuff, so go me!  I was impressed with their ability to roll their rolls, and they even do it the more difficult way with the nori around the filling and the rice on the outside.  

Dinner.  Now on sunday I made a pot pie and froze it, so today when I got home I popped it in the oven.  It is fairly basic, I used store bought pie shells, (double check to make sure they are vegan) and filled it with veggies of any sort and a little broth.  I used peas, corn, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, beans, mushrooms and daiya 'cheese'.  I did preboil the potatoes, because I find otherwise they are a little hard.  Then flip the second pie crust over the top and you are good to go.  Sadly the pie seemed to take forever to bake.  It was in the oven almost 2 hours and still didn't brown up.

As a side I made sweet potato fries.  Simply cut up a sweet potato into fry-like strips.  I boiled them for a short period, like five minutes, and then seasoned as desired.  (I use garlic, roasted red pepper, thyme, rosemary and sage)  Heat up some oil, and drop in the fries, watch until ready.  This took awhile as well. 

Dish up and voila dinner!

Conclusion. Good I wouldn't say great.  If I were to make it again I would leave out the fake cheese, I find it tastes a little like cheez whiz of which I am not a fan.  Len on the other hand enjoyed the pie a lot, even had seconds.  The potato fries were quite delicious.

Day 9

Up early.  Took out the garbage and recycling, and had time to make my shake and get to work early.  Go me!  This morning was banana mango in carrot juice.  Now I normally let the frozen mangoes sit in the juice while I take Oz out and then blend.   This morning I didn't and my poor little nine dollar blender had a little fit, but all is well and he is still working, I will try to remember to be nicer to him in the future.  Carrot shakes are a nice bright orange and don't gross the co-workers out nearly as much as the green goddess, which sometimes look green, brown, or one time an unappealing shade of grey. 

Lunch was the homemade soup I made on sunday, and half a spinach pita.  Pitas were getting a little stale so Oz got the other half.

Dinner was spaghetti squash.  Now spaghetti squashes are big yellow squashes, with yellowy flesh. Simply cut the squash in half and place upside down in the oven at 350 until it is soft, I think it was like forty minutes, but as usual I am not the kind of cook that plays close attention,  I checked every so often until it was soft.  Then you take a fork and scrape the inside, it comes apart in stringy bits not unlike spaghetti ( I wonder if that is why they named it that? hmmm :)  For sauce I used tomato sauce, cooked up some mushrooms, zucchini and cut up burgers from yesterday.  and voila dinner!

Conclusion:  Yummy!!  The squash is much lighter than noodles.  It is also a little less filling, so if you are going for a super hearty meal I would probably still make noodles, but the squash had a nice light flavour.  Acorn is still my favourite of the squashes but this was all in all a good meal.  Len enjoyed as well, his favourite part being the burger bits (dude really liked those burgers) 

Bookworm Wednesday

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 

Since the ending of Harry Potter and sadly the Twilight Saga the literary world has been desperate to find the "next big thing".  The buzz around The Night Circus promised a magical 'must read'.  I finished it yesterday.

Two illusionists are pitted against each other in a competition and the venue is the night circus.  This novel has everything that I should love.  There is the mysterious circus itself swathed in black and white and containing tents and performers each more fantastical then the last.  There is forbidden love.  There is magic.  There are illusionists, contortionists, fortune-tellers, magical white fire, clock-makers, 'ghosts', midnight dinners and an odd set of twins.   All of these things make it a novel I should adore however it falls flat on all accounts.

The plot is boring.  Two men choose contestants to compete in an undefined competition, of an unspecific nature, with undefined rules and neither competitor is aware of the other or the rules or the outcomes.  As such they care very little about this competition which in turn leads the reader to care very little as well.  No details are ever revealed as to why or how this competition exists.  The two 'master minds' have been setting up competitions of this nature for a very long time, though there is never a reason why, or who these two men really are.  We aren't even sure how one could win the competition. The plot is 'slow-burning' and the plot points seem to happen randomly with no intensity or intrigue.  and then it is over.

The characters are flat.   It is hard to care for any of them, they lack character or interest and are completely interchangeable.  They have no fears or hopes and I found it very hard to be interested in anything they do.  The great love shared by Celia and Marco seems to come out of nowhere, they don't even  meet until 150 pages in, and when they do their encounters are brief and emotionally lacking, yet we are to believe they care deeply for each other.  The characters are hollow and lack definition or purpose. 

The majority of the prose is dedicated to describing the scenery, which while lush, takes up so much time and does not further the plot or the characters that it seems more as filler then story.  To further befuddle the reader the writing style is wordy, and often changes perspective and sometimes tenses within a sentence.  Each chapter switches between characters, places, and sometimes times that are not always consequential, which makes it hard to become absorbed in any of the storylines. 

I honestly was really looking forward to reading this book, and sadly my high hopes were not met.  Overall the book left me feeling cold.

Day 8 (It has been a week baby)

Back to work today, which meant back to a shake for breakfast.  Today's special was green goddess juice with mangoes.  Very yummy.

Lunch was the rest of last night's sushi.  Because using up leftovers is not only productive but sexy. 

For dinner tonight I made Black bean sliders.  Step one: Saute potatoes and onions in a little bit of oil.  add 2 cloves of garlic (I only added one, despite my love of garlic I find two a bit strong) I also added zucchini, mushrooms and some yellow peppers, which the recipe didn't call for.  Diversion aside, continue sauteing until the potatoes are soft but not browned.  Now, the original recipe said to let cool and then add other ingredients but I just put it the the blender to make it a littler smoother.  To this mixture add bread crumbs and black beans. (original recipe also calls for poblano peppers ( I had to google what these were and of course I didn't have any).  Mixy mix and then form into patties.  Drop in a bowl of flour (I used quinoa flour) covering both sides then fry in a little oil until they are dark.  Everything is already cooked so fry for whatever length of time you like.  Add condiments to your heart's content... and Voila dinner!

side dishes of homemade coleslaw, veggies, and terra chips

 

 

  Conclusion.  Delicious!  the burgers were slightly mushy, but really tasty.  Len told me he thought they were tastier than Harvey's veggie burgers, so kudos to me.  and kudos to theveganzombie.com for the original recipe. 

Side note.  The vegan zombie not only has awesome recipes but a whole series of youtube videos showing you exactly what to do.  ( and he ain't too hard on the eyes either)

Day 7

and I week is up! Doing great feeling good!

I had today off work to take Oz to the doctor, so I slept in.

Breakfast was a BBQ tofu sandwich.  yummy

Lunch was eaten in the car.  grapes, dates, and almonds.

Dinner was homemade veggie sushi (which I prepared yesterday, sushi is best if you leave it in the fridge overnight)  and veggie tempura. For sushi you make rice, I add extra water to make it stickier.  Then spread it on a nori (seaweed) while it is still warm.  Line with veggies and then roll.  Now there is an art to rolling sushi, I am not that talented at it so my rolls are a little sloppy, but just as tasty.  For tempura heat oil, basically make pancake batter with garlic and dip veggies in it then fry.  and Voila dinner! 

sushi dinner

Conclusion.  Delicious.  I love sushi, my favourite is Black Dragon, but that has eel.  The veggie version is just as tasty.  Tempura was great, loved the zucchini and mushrooms most.  Len doesn't like sushi so he opted to eat leftover tofu and pumpkin noodles, I assume he liked those.

No dessert tonight

The tale of Ozzie

Today I spent two and a half hours driving to an hour long doctor's appointment and then drove two and a half hours home,  for my dog.  Yes that's right, for my dog.  It was just a check up and I am pleased to say he is doing just great.  So I thought I would share a little story of how Ozzie came to be mine.

Growing up I didn't have any pets that weren't fish.  My mom is not a huge animal person, in fact she really doesn't like them at all.  She has a weird fear of cats and prefers her dogs to be stuffed (her words not mine).  So when I finally settled down enough to have what one could actually call a permanent address I decided it was time for a dog.  Lacking motivation and the finances for an expensive dog the idea sort of just floated around inside my head. 

In the summer of 2007 I was working at a photo lab, and on one particular day a roll of film I was developing was full of adorable puppies.  I gooed and gawed over them, and then went for my break.  Well when I came back the other girl I worked with handed me a flyer that said the puppies were for sale, and they were only $50.  Perfect.  I went home, told Len "hey you want a dog right?"  and called the number.  A very sleepy and confused young man answered the phone and said he had no idea what I was talking about.  I hung up and tried again the next day, same kid, less sleepy more confused and angry.  So I though "oh well".  The next week the same lady came into the photo lab, and told me, her sister had accidentally mixed up the phone number, and sleepy kid had got a lot of confusing phone calls.  Anyway, she still had seven of the eight pups and I could come pick one out that night. 

That night Len and I drove out to Berkley and when I got out of the car, seven rolly polly puppies came running toward me.  They were adorable and so soft and fluffy.  Now the father was a white german shepard and the mom was a blue heeler/beagle cross, needless to say the puppies all looked very different.  some were white, some were amber, some were black and some were multi-coloured.  Ozzie came and curled up in my lap and little black ball of fur with a white tuff on his forehead, like Harry Potter, I knew he was mine.  He was so calm and gentle, a fact that later seemed like a ploy on his part to win us over, as he is quite an overexcited pup at time. Len had wanted a girl and a blonde (so like a man) but this black little man was definitely it.

Ozzie's first night with us

We packed him up and took him home to the tiny apartment we were living in at the time.  He was just pup for about twelve hours, I had always thought I wanted to name my dog Dante but it just didn't seem right.  So I went out to get some dog supplies and driving home I just thought Ozzie.  Len liked it too, and so our little man had a name. 

The first night I felt so bad for him cause he seemed sad, probably missing the warm pile of siblings he used to sleep with, so I slept next to his crate with my hand in there so he wouldn't be scared (yes I realize I am a sucker).  He wasn't a little pup for long, though he didn't grow as big as we had thought, he is a svelte 50 pound dog now.  Len has always been an animal person and animals seemed to love him,  he always teased me that the dog would love him more, but that first night we bonded, and it is obvious to everyone that despite loving Len a lot...  He loves me a little more :)

Ozzie at the new house

At a year old, I noticed his eye weeping a lot and it turned out he had a cataract.  Options were given and we choose to do the surgery now in hopes of saving his eye.  Now I have heard it all, He is just a dog,  Why spend all that money? Are you crazy?  The answers are he is MY dog,  He needs the surgery, and crazy?  well maybe but that has nothing to do with this. 

I have been very lucky in my life, I have a great family, awesome friends, and a very loving partner.  But no one has ever loved me the way Ozzie does.  His love is unconditional, and overwhelming.  He follows me around, he cuddles with me, when I am happy, sad, mad or indifferent he loves me.  He wants nothing more than my attention and love.  When we go hiking he runs around but always waits to make sure I am not too far behind, or if he can't see me, he circles back to check.  When we are swimming he circles me to make sure I am ok (although I confess that is sometimes quite annoying).  When I come home he is utterly joyous.  He is perfect, despite the jumping, despite the barking, the devious chewing of random things and stealing the occasional bit of food, I wouldn't trade him for the world.   He has even managed to melt my mom's heart, he can come inside, he even got to sleep on her bed one day after a long day of swimming. "well he looks so tired"  said my mother the dog hater,  and I see her sneak him some her food. 

Ozzie and Vouka

smartie wrapped in saran wrap, the initial plan was to remove the smartie and replace it with a fake.  However once they started it became clear that Ozzie's saran wrap was all wrinkly, so even with a fake smartie he couldn't see.  Luckily my vet is amazing, and he did some fancy work and not only is Oz's eye good, he can totally see with it!

Ozzie on a hike, making sure I am keeping up

So that is how Ozzie came to be mine, and just as luckily how I came to be his.

Day 6

Last night the clocks turned back an hour which makes you think "oh great an extra hour of sleep" but my body was not fooled and I woke up at 9 (which was now 8).  So really now I am just awake for longer today.  Luckily I am not working tomorrow, so I have an extra day to sleep in.

This morning I got breakfast in bed.  It was maple nut oatmeal.  Now I hear oatmeal is not difficult to make but this was the instant kind, the last of a fairly old box.  But it arrived in my hands with no effort on my part, so I am not complaining.

Lunch was half a tomato sandwich, some cut up veggies with hummus, and some grapes.  Now Len was eating baba ganoush and I dipped a celery in that and then read the ingredients which apparently include milk and sour cream.  So I did consume a little dairy on the end of that celery, however I am not going to sweat the dairy consumption.

Dinner was Pumpkin Mac and "cheese" .  Make your noodles. I like veggie rotini, sauce clings to those little corkscrews.  Next melt "butter" (I like Earth balance) in a saucepan.  In a bowl whisk together almond milk, garlic, arrowroot powder, nutritional yeast and dijon mustard.  Add to saucepan and warm over low heat until thick. (it didn't take long)  then add pumpkin.  mixy mix.. and pour over the noodles.  And Voila dinner!!

(Original recipe from Ohsheglows.com)

Conclusion: OK.  Which I guess is a bit of a disappointment.  This is a recipe that I have wanted to try for awhile now.  It started out nice but there was a slight bitter aftertaste.  At first I thought it was the dijon mustard cause it tasted a little like there was horseradish in it.  A little further research leads me to believe it is the nutritional yeast that gave it this pep.  Now Len liked it, but I am a huge baby you doesn't like spice or heat of any kind.  I would probably try making it again, but cut back or leave out the yeast. 

For dessert I made apple tarts.  This time I took the time to peel the apples which made a huge difference in the taste, much better.  Then add graham cracker crumbs (which can contain honey so watch out if you don't want honey,  mine were fine) maple syrup and cinnamon.  Put in tart shells (which can contain eggs or milk so read the label) and bake at 350 until they are done, I think it was like 20 minutes or so.  and Voila dessert!!

(Recipe just from my head)
Served with banana "ice cream"

Conclusion:  delicious and the perfect size.

Today I was super productive and tomorrow's dinner is in the fridge, and Wednesday's is in the freezer but more on that latter this week :)

Day 5

Saturday brings out the laziness, which is a wonderful change of pace.  This is the first weekend in a while that I haven't had much to do, so sleeping in was in order.  and then no shake for me, this morning was fancy pants breakfast.  So when I finally managed to get out of bed and get going, I got to making Orange French Toast and potatoes.  Basically you mix orange juice, soy milk (I used almond milk since I prefer it to soy) and cinnamon.  Dip your bread (I used sour dough cause its delicious) and fry until brown and toasty.  sprinkle with icing sugar, and serve with maple syrup.  potatoes I just cut up and fried with garlic and poultry seasoning (which is a combo of sage thyme rosemary marjoram).  and Voila breakfast!

(original recipe from theveganstoner.com)

Conclusion delicious and way feeling, I could only finish one and a half pieces.  Surprising fact, soaked breads take a very long to fry and the middles were still a little soggy could have used a little longer in the pan.

Now this is a fairly high calorie count for breakfast, so I didn't find myself hungry again until dinner. so we skip lunch.  Do a bunch of laundry, dishes, make veggie soup with the chopped up vegetables that we getting a little soft, make a batch of banana 'ice cream' and take Ozzie for a walk. 

Now last night tofu has been marinating in the fridge over night, in a mixture of soy sauce, BBQ sauce (mine honey garlic and Len's hot), vinegar, garlic, and Len's with a little hot spices.  So we take the tofu and bake it at 425 for 18 minutes, flip and bake 6 more minutes.  made ciabatta garlic bread, add tofu and top some home made coleslaw (made with vegenaise).  Sides, more potatoes from this morning, corn, cucumbers, and some baked beans,   and Voila dinner!

(original recipe from dashofeast.com)

Conclusion: really good.  the honey garlic really adsorbed in the tofu and the coleslaw was a crunchy taste combo.  Len liked his too.  So far all recipes have been deemed a success.

Skipped dessert tonight.