Portland: Part One!

I made it back! And oh, how I wish I was still in Portland… yesterday it was 111 degrees here. Guess what it was in Portland? 77 degrees. Ughhh Portland… why?! Or rather, why do I have a comparison of the temp in Phoenix and the temp in Portland side by side? It’s only going to make me sad in the summer…

Anyway, back to the adventures! I’m going to break this down in order of my favorite things about Oregon, rather than a daily log, because that’s easier. And yes, be prepared for a lot of Voodoo Doughtnuts! And be warned, this will be a photo-intensive post, so if your computer loads pictures slowly… just warning you!

First things first: day 1 of our trip, we went to Cannon Beach. Unfortunately, the first day we arrived was the only day it was sunny, and hence this one and only picture I got of the beach (and me). The next morning, we ate breakfast and left early amid the dreary rain. However, I thought Cannon Beach was absolutely beautiful! Next time, more pictures for sure. Also, more Mo’s eating. So much more eating at Mo’s…

Cannon Beach!

One of the coolest things Dad and I did was take a jet boat ride on the Willamette River. I say it was cool because a) jet boat, duh! and b) we learned some interesting info, but I have to say, I wouldn’t do it again. It was one of those jet boat rides that intends to get you wet, and half the time the guide went so fast that I had to close my eyes because my contacts were blowing out! Boo!

Boat ride!

Dad is psyched to be on a jet boat, clearly.

That’s probably the most excited face my Dad had on this whole trip. He’s not a ‘smile for the camera’ guy!

Waterfall!

On our trip, we saw the beautiful Willamette Falls, which was stunning.

And of course, any trip to Portland would not be complete without a trip to the farmer’s market! Unfortunately, Dad and I weren’t in town for the famous Saturday Farmer’s Market, but on Wednesday, we did stumble upon this smaller market downtown.

Farmer’s Market!

A view from the outskirts of the market… once we were up in it, I was too overwhelmed by everything to get any decent pictures!

You can be sure I bought some fresh strawberries and ate them all in one sitting!! Dad and I, of course, being the sweet-fiends that we are, also got a bunch of pastries… but yet again, no pictures… because we inhaled them :-/

And what would a trip to Portland be without lots and lots of eating?! (Answer: not a trip at all!!) Every single day (for breakfast and lunch) we ate at the food carts. Dinner was typically leftovers from lunch, or we weren’t hungry, otherwise we would have eaten dinner at the food carts too. No, probably not the healthiest meals, but damn were they good. My favorites off the top of my head?: DC Vegetarian (I got their tempeh BLT); the Whole Bowl (I ate there twice!); and La Jarochita (those breakfast burritos were NOT KIDDING AROUND. Huge!!). Honestly, I wish I had eaten at DC Vegetarian twice, but Dad insisted we move around the city to find more food cart pods (except, you’ll notice, when he found a food cart he loved…), so alas!

But here, the one semi-blurry picture I got of the Bambino bowl from the Whole Bowl:

I don’t even remember exactly what is in here but let’s take a stab: cilantro, avocados, black olives, black and red beans, brown rice, salsa, and something called Tali Sauce. I have no idea what Tali Sauce is, but let me just say: it makes the bowl. I mean, otherwise this bowl is something I could even whip up… but with the addition of this not-spicy-yet-not-sweet sauce, the bowl is perfect. Heaven! You’ll also notice I left off the cheese and sour cream, thereby making this bowl vegan… aww yeah! Eating healthy while traveling FTW!

By the way, the bowl looks small… believe me, it’s not. I was full off that bad boy for hours! However, it is possible to eat it in one sitting so, if you live there or maybe have access to a fridge, you could get the bigger bowl and have leftovers. That’s what I would do!

And finally… what you came to this post to read about… VOODOO DOUGHNUTS!!! We ate here twice, which was the most I could convince Dad to do, and I’m pretty sure the second time we ate there was only because it was Friday (our last day) and we had nothing to do, and because Dad is a sweet fiend like me.

My first Voodoo loot:

Yes, ALL VEGAN!

From the top, clock-wise, the ODB (I’m not going to spell that out for you, but you can find it here!), the Diablos Rex, and the infamous Voodoo Doll itself! And yes, the Voodoo Doll had red filling inside of it (like blood). The best part about all of these donuts? They were all on the ‘vegan’ shelf, meaning they were made with no eggs and no dairy! Woohoo! Also, for those curious… they taste exactly like ‘real’ doughnuts. I could not tell the difference and, believe me, I’m kind of something like a ‘real’ doughnut connoisseur.

Eat me…

And, as mentioned on Yelp, go early!! The first day we went at 6 AM (the downtown location is open 24 hours) and there was no line… Friday we went at 8 AM, line practically out the door! People literally get boxes and boxes of these doughnuts, so really… go early or go really late!

And one our last day in Portland, Dad decided to be adventurous…

ODB for an ODB.

and he tried the ODB plus the Triple Chocolate Penetration (picture not shown, because we ate it immediately…) He proclaimed the doughnuts from Voodoo “good”, which is about the highest praise about anything that you could expect from my Dad, so I took it as a good sign.

That’s it for today! Look for more pictures and Part Two tomorrow (or the next day, you never know with me)… until then, stay cool!

The Curious Case of the Escaping Kitties

And we interrupt the healthy living/recipe posts for a brief interlude of CUTE PETS!

First, the gatos. It’s been warming up a lot here in Phoenix (that’s an understatement) and, since we’re trying to save money and it’s been dry outside, we’ve been using the swamp cooler (AKA evap cooler) a lot. As you may or may not know, swamp coolers work the best when you have a door or window open, so that the hot air in the house gets pushed out by the cool swamp cooler air.

Well, let’s just say that not all of our windows have screens (I know, I know, that’s one of the first things we’ll be fixing this summer!). And Blake, unlike me, thinks that ALL THE WINDOWS must be open to have a truly cool house, so he goes around and opens windows even though I tell him a) no screens b) flies will get in the house and c) we have crazy kitties.

I’m sure you see what’s coming next, right? Oh yes… the Curious Case of the Escaping Kitties time! Unbeknownst to me, Blake had opened the window in his office fairly wide, although not wide enough for a kitty to get through (so we thought.) By some stroke of luck, I had left my phone in Blake’s office and went to retrieve it when I saw our fat kitty, Izzy, sitting on the bench, looking shady.

POC: Partner in Crime

This wasn’t typical behavior for Izzy– she’s usually our ‘sweet’ kitty, the kitty that comes when called, that purrs and meows and loves to be petted and around people… but yesterday, her squirrelly-looking face made me look twice– and who did I spy sitting RIGHT OUTSIDE the window, on the ledge? MADISON!

“One day I shall be free…”

Knowing that she would run away if I made any sudden moves, I called Blake and told him calmly that Maddy was outside. He understood immediately, and went outside and gently called Maddy’s name, all while slowly moving to grab her. Luckily she took his ‘nice Daddy’ bait and came willingly (like I said, she’s not our ‘sweet’ kitty).

Our cats don’t speak English (we’re working on it) but I could tell for the rest of the night, Maddy was annoyed at being caught. Her one shot at freedom, cruelly taken away because Izzy can’t keep her poker face (nor could she get her fat butt through the small window opening). Oh well, the bright is that we caught her and she’s safe, and now Blake is beginning to understand that windows without screens should NOT be open. Training the boyfriend is a slow-going process…

And now, Molly! Nothing exciting to report about her– she’s still our crazy puppy. We took her to the dog park at 6:30 AM yesterday (yes, on a Saturday!) because, again, it’s crazy hot outside by 8 AM. She had a great time, although she did get beat up a little by a giant 11 month old Great Dane (11 mos. and it weighed 155 lbs…. what?!)

She also has her own precious way of coping with the heat:

Best of both worlds.

My Dad got her this great bed (he spoils his grand-puppy) and she absolutely loves it… but when it gets too hot in the house, she compromises by doing something like this. I don’t know how she finds it comfy, but someone she’ll sleep like that for an hour to two… go figure!

Hope you all are enjoying this lazy Sunday!

Boot camp butt kicking

Oh boy, going to today’s boot camp was so awful! When I woke up at 5:45 this morning, it was 3 degrees outside. THREE DEGREES!! Kill me now! Plus it was icy as heck, so I decided not to risk my life… and I drove. Smartish? Ehh.. well anyway, my car did fine, but the minute I stepped out of the car, I did not. Slipping EVERYWHERE! Thank goodness, I made it. And just about died, again. Whyyyy boot camp WHY?! Here’s what we did today:

• 45 lunges (3 sets of 15)
• 30 squats (3 sets of 10)
• 40 inchworms (2 sets of 20)
• 30 pushups (3 sets of 10)
• 40 crunches (2 sets of 10 crunches, 2 different kinds: regular crunches and side crunches)
• 30 10-lb. weight presses over our head (Does that make sense? We held ten lb. weights at a 90 degree angle and pushed them up over our head… not sure what that’s called!)
• 6 laps around the gym

I worked out! Thank goodness we didn’t run the stairs again though… she’s saving that for Tuesday :-/

Since I’ve been working out so much (both over the break and now), I decided I really want to look into protein powders to help build muscle. Yes, I know protein powders make you “gain weight” (in the form of muscles.) Yes, I know you need to be doing weight training in order to justify it. I promise, I feel like I need it and I am super motivated to amp up my weight training (when I’m done being dead from boot camp.)

Furthermore, our boot camp instructor noticed me flagging the other day running stairs, and she suggested I eat something for energy before coming to work out. Soooo I sent out a Twitter message to Vega, maker of vegan health optimizers/protein powders/stuff for runners. And lo and behold, I came across some really interesting info!

(source)

1. It’s vegan, and whole food! None of that whey business in here, and all sorts of good-for-you ingredients.
2. Vega was started by Brendan Brazier, a vegan super athlete.
3. It’s gotten a ton of good reviews online.

Yeah, you can see I did lots of research All joking aside, I actually have been looking into Vega for a long time, and reading about their ingredients, and now reading reviews. After all that, I decided I’m going to try the Vega Sport line, in particular the: ‘Prepare’ Pre-Workout Energizer (lots of people said it gave them energy and made their work outs easier, yay!) and the ‘Recover’ Performance Protein. They’re both kind of expensive, but I’m looking forward to trying something healthy, good for me, and good for the environment. If it helps me build muscle and feel better before, during, and after the gym, all the better!

(source)

The one thing I’m dreading is the expense, though. After what I saw online… I’m trying to decide which would be better to buy. I’d like to try the Pre-Workout Energizer, but I think overall the Performance Protein would be better. Hmm… cross your fingers when I go to the store tomorrow, they’re not too prohibitvely expensive!

Last but not least, here’s my meal plan for the day:

Breakfast: one slice toast with Earth Balance butter, large green drank w/ flaxseeds

Lunch: small salad (lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, onions), half a mock tuna sandwich from Happy Herbivore, last dark chocolate cherry nut cookie!

Dinner: Couscous and Vegetarian Plus’ Vegan Black Pepper Steaks, sauteed broccoli and (if it’s still good :-/) green pepper, garlic

Dessert: Silk vanilla soy yogurt with sliced strawberries and blueberries (I’m in a sweet mood!)

Snacks: Pretzels with hummus, glass of wine! Yum!

Teese ‘cheese’ & cinnamon roll crust – what?!

After today’s earlier post, I thought we all needed a little levity for this post! Also, I can’t stop thinking about grilled cheeses and tomato soup (something about it snowing outside and being stuck indoors gets me in the mood for soup), so where better to discuss my love of food than on this blog? It is, after all, somewhat based on my love of food and my (pathetic) attempts at cooking.

“Wait Melissa… isn’t grilled cheese NOT vegan?” you may be wondering… and yes, you are right! Cheese is definitely not vegan (and I guess according to that link, not even vegetarian, but okay), so why in the world am I talking about grilled cheese sandwiches?

Because, my friends, I am not talking about grilled cheese sandwiches… I’m talking about grilled teese sandwiches!

(source)

Ahaha, yay for plays on words! But more importantly, yay for delicious, vegan cheese! Made by Chicago SoyDairy, Teese is an 100% dairy free alternative to cheese and comes in two different flavors, Mozzarella and Cheddar.

(source)

Teese is similar to Daiya cheese, in that it has also gotten great reviews for actually tasting and ‘acting’ like cheese. Plus, you can find Daiya cheese practically everywhere. However, I noticed Daiya cheese didn’t melt quite as good as the claims and, while I was happy with the taste and consistency, I was a little bummed to find it didn’t melt like real cheese.

Enter… Cait’s Cait Hates Cake blog! In her post about Teese, she reviewed the Teese product and also shared some incredibly mouth-watering photos of the black bean and Teese quesadillas she made… seriously, don’t click that link if you haven’t eaten lunch yet

However… here comes the terrible, horrible, no good bad news ever: They do not sell Teese ANYWHERE near me. Within 60 miles of me, there are absolutely no retailers who sell Teese products. And yes, I complained to my Whole Foods store about this. Next, I must complain to my Natural Grocer’s store (note to self.)

It is absolutely tragic because, like I mentioned, I would die for a delicious grilled cheese sandwich right now. Of course, there is a Whole Foods in Scottsdale (close to Phoenix) close to where I live when I’m back in AZ… I suppose I’ll have to wait!

To cheer myself up, I visited vegansaurus.com, my favorite vegan/snarky website, and guess what I found… THIS!!:

From Stormka, it is a cinnamon roll PIE CRUST. O-m-g. Delicious, no?? And if you click here, she has what looks to be an incredibly delicious recipe for Sweet Potato Pie with Cinnamon Roll crust. Be still, my heart!

Oh, and as for the things I’ve eaten today… not terribly exciting but here goes:

Breakfast: Rice bits (holla for being poor) with half a sliced banana, slice toast w/ Earth Balance butter, Celestial Seasonings antioxidant tea

Lunch: Repeat of the other day… whole wheat burrito with Mexican Bean Dip, lettuce, and tomatoes

Dinner: Couscous with green pepper (if it’s still good… I should check that) and spinach, side of some random mock meat I have in the fridge (I think it’s Gardein, so you know it’s gonna be good… I’ll take pictures!)

Snacks: An apple, some pretzels with hummus, and a green drank! Except I forgot to put in spinach, so it was considerably less green. And yes, that is a penis straw. I got it from a friend as a joke… aww yeah!

Days 7 & 8: All-in-one meal & Get spicy!

Oh man, okay so it looks like yesterday was one of those 20% days where I fail at something… posting on this blog! Luckily I did not fail on the ’31 Changes in 31 Days’ thing. Only day 8? That would be tragic!

Yesterday was day 7, Try to Eat an All-in-One Meal. By the way, if you’re confused about what I’m doing, click here to read about my VegNews New Year’s challenge

My all-in-one meal yesterday was kind of a repeat of the past couple of days… more quinoa:

Plus a Tandoor vegetable samosa

(source)

Okay, so maybe not the most clever thing (and certainly not the “massaged kale salad” that VegNews recommend– btw, wth is a massaged kale salad? Do I have to rub down my kale?), but it worked. Yesterday was super busy, and today will be busy as well!

Yesterday I also hit the gym, but it was all cardio yesterday (plus some crunches) because today was my first ever boot camp class!!! Hooray! And oh my gosh, did it kick my BUTT!! We started off freaking running the STAIRS– there were at least 10 sets of stairs!! I finished about 7 before I was absolutely dead… it wasn’t that my legs were hurting, they’re not hurting at all, but the cardio absolutely killed me! I really need to improve that More stair running for me!

Today we also did:

• 25 inchworms
• 50 back extensions (ow!)
• 50 scissor crunches
• 50 deadlifts
• 30 push ups
• 50 rows
• 50 crunches

And then I did a plank for 30 seconds… owwie! Cross your fingers I can amp it up when I go again on Thursday!

Today’s challenge from VegNews is: Get spicy. Luckily, I made more of Happy Herbivore’s Mexican Dip, and there’s a healthy dash of chili pepper plus a jalapeno, so it is plenty spicy for me! I plan on eating it on a burrito today for lunch, before class.

Due to the fact that the boiler in our apartment complex broke (and was broken for 4 days, DURING A SNOWSTORM), so there was NO heat when it was 15 degrees outside, I have a tiny cold (sore throat, runny nose.) Thanks a lot, living in a crappy apartment. Oh, to be a poor grad student! So I’m going to try to eat healthy and filling:

Breakfast: two slices toast with peanut butter and banana, orange juice

Lunch: Happy Herbivore’s Mexican Dip with lettuce and tomato, side of water or milk

Dinner: Finishing up the rest of the quinoa, making more sauteed broccoli with garlic

Snacks: Apple at class, strawberries and blueberries mixed with yogurt for dessert

Question for you all: Seriously, what is massaged kale?? Also, have you ever done a boot camp class, or had to run stairs? Any tips on how I can survive this cardio butt-kicking?

Day 6: Eat broccoli

One of the words I still find surprisingly hard to spell… broccoli! Today’s challenge from VegNews’ ’31 Changes in 31 Days’ is: Eat broccoli.

First, some health info on why broccoli is so amazing for you:

• Broccoli has nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid, calcium, and fiber (source)
• Vitamin C helps with iron absorption in the body
• Broccoli also can help prevent cataracts, and eases the symptoms of the common cold (source)
• According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, broccoli is also likely to prevent colon cancer
• Boiled broccoli has more vitamin C than an orange, and as much calcium as a glass of milk (source)

To be honest… I had no idea broccoli was so good for us! I always knew it was good to eat broccoli, for some reason, and whenever I would buy bags of frozen vegetables, I’d always make sure they came with some bits of broccoli… but wow! Now I’m actually excited to eat more broccoli

I just decided to saute fresh broccoli with garlic in olive oil and a little salt/pepper. I was intrigued by Isa Chandra from the Post Punk Kitchen version, which you can read about here, but then I was too lazy to do it… :-/

Today I decided not to go to the gym because something tragic happened last night: the boiler in our ghetto apartment complex broke! And, of course, it snowed last night. So not only did I go to bed absolutely freezing, I woke up absolutely freezing knowing that the sidewalks would be icy… so, I decided to stay in bed and keep warm.

However, I did go to brunch with friends this morning to a Latin Fusion restaurant, and I thought I was going to be totally screwed for food options… luckily, this was not the case! I was able to get fried plantains topped with cinnamon, and a “sweet potato mash” that came with grilled veggies. Yum! So today’s food choices were pretty good:

Breakfast: Fried plantains w/ cinnamon, sweet potato mash, 2 glasses mimosas (yum!!)

Lunch: A mock-tuna sandwich from Happy Herbivore, small glass of soymilk

Dinner: Roasted broccoli with garlic and quinoa (leftover quinoa)

Snacks: Gala apple, small bowl of Rice Bits with soymilk

RSVP fails

Winter has arrived in Colorado! Yesterday, of course when my student group had an activity planned down in Colorado Springs, the weather decided it didn’t want to cooperate, and it snowed. Yes, SNOW! Actually, where we were in Denver, it just rained, but it was super cold rain. It stayed in the 40s here in Denver all day. I’m currently huddled in bed, trying to encourage myself to get dressed and brave the weather to go to the gym. This is going to be a tough winter. Or a fat one. I haven’t decided.

Anyway, on our drive to Colorado Springs, it definitely was raining/snowing. It was really cool to finally see a little snow on the ground, I must admit, but the chilly weather and poor road conditions were not fun!

On the other hand, our trip to visit the Air Force Academy was a huge success! Everyone who RSVP’d was able to make it, which was pretty impressive since the weather was pretty hairy for a while. I don’t really know what was the best part of the tour: the mission briefing, where we learned how cadets train for real life disasters, such as hurricanes in the Philippines; a sample ‘lecture’ the cadets get on military relations between hostile countries and the US; or the flight simulation. Probably the flight simulation.

Yes, they let ME fly a plane. Can you believe it?! Just kidding, it was just a simulator. I actually did a lot better than I thought I would! Even when we were getting shot at by the enemy, I was able to roll the plane out of the way AND keep low enough that their radar lost us. Holla! However, when it came to landing the plane… yeah, let’s just say I won’t be getting my pilot’s license anytime soon.

Speaking of RSVPs… my wonderful friend from school and her husband always throw these terrific, once-a-month, First Friday potlucks. I absolutely love my friend and her husband, and they put a lot of time in cleaning up their apartment, making a couple dishes, supplying games/conversation/fun, and generally being awesome hosts. I’ve gone to every First Friday potluck they’ve throw, except for 1 when I was out of town, and I always respond to their Facebook events promptly with a yes or no.

Since I’m vegetarian and my friends aren’t, I generally either: bring my own veggie hot dish, eat before I go to the potluck and then graze, or rely on others for their veggie dishes. This worked out great the last potluck, as I not only ate before going, but this other vegetarian girl showed up and brought a yummy veggie meal.

This time, two vegetarians had RSVP’d that, yes they would be coming, and that they would be bringing a veggie quesadilla and a veggie soup. Considering I knew that both of these people were pretty trustworthy for doing what they said they would do, I brought my pumpkin muffins, didn’t eat beforehand, and showed up…

To exactly 2 other people there, besides me and the hosts. Needless to say, there were no veggie dishes.

WTF?? Noooo!! But yes. It turns out the one other vegetarian girl canceled at the last minute, and the other vegetarian didn’t “have time” to make what he said he would bring, so he brought chips and hummus. Our spread turned out to be: veggie chips and hummus, pumpkin muffins, jello shots, wine, cheeze-its, and orange chicken. (Quick gripe: I had tons of homework AND work that day, and I still found time to go to the store, get some ingredients, and make my pumpkin muffins. And yet you, who don’t have a job and stayed home all day, didn’t ‘have time’ to make a frickin’ quesadilla?? What??)

Now, I have to say the veggie chips were awesome. I have never heard of this brand before, but I definitely think they might be worth $4:

Terra Chips! Yum! And the hummus was Sabra, which is also typically good:

This might sound whiney of me, but when 7 people say they will show up, and only 3 people actually do, I think it’s really rude. I’m not trying to say that I’m grumpy I didn’t get fed (it just teaches me to ALWAYS eat before going to any potluck, which was typically what I did anyway), but it does make me upset for the host.

My friend didn’t say too much about it, but I know if I were a hostess and only 3/7 people showed up to my potluck/fiesta, after replying that they could and then canceling last minute, I’d be pretty annoyed. And to those who didn’t bother to RSVP one way or another?? Come on!! I know it’s Facebook and it’s informal, but just say yes or no. If you’re not sure, there is a maybe button, and you could call me the day before to give a firm answer.

Some people say that the RSVP is dead or “outdated”, but I think that’s a load of BS. If you can’t take 5 seconds or less out of your day to make a phone call or send a text, or press a FACEBOOK BUTTON, for goodness’ sakes, you are a lazy human being. I know everyone gets busy, but you can’t tell me you’re completely cut off from the phone ALL DAY. Even my friend who works at NGA (National Geospatial Intelligence Agency), who can’t have his phone at work, always responds to FB messages or texts when he’s off work. And believe me, he is a busy guy.

Okay, so /vent over. Now you all know that you will be dead to me if you ever don’t RSVP to one of my events. Am I crazy here? Is the RSVP dead? How do you plan for parties when more than half of the people don’t give you a firm yes or no? Honestly, if the same thing that happened to my friend happened to me, I just wouldn’t invite those people over for potlucks. I would invite them maybe for a one on one coffee chat or maybe an informal BBQ, but that would be about it. Has this type of thing ever happened to anyone else?

Hurricane Irene and breakfast

This weekend I’m visiting my parents down in Tucson, so today I woke up to some delicious coffee, courtesy of Mom. I LOVE my Mom’s coffee!! She typically uses this coffee from a local restaurant in Tucson, the Blue Willow, and she always has delicious creamer. Seriously, no one can beat the way my Mom makes coffee!

I made myself some toast and then added the hardboiled eggs Dad made for us, so I had a pretty healthy breakfast.

Yes, my coffee is