Thursday, May 13, 2010

Allergic to my House

Dear Mother Nature, 

I would like to help you out by reminding you that it is May. Indeed, it is not just the beginning, but instead half-way through.  

The fact of the matter is this rain, rain really has come to stay

My Uggs are soggy (note to self: buy rain boots because neither flats nor sandals are a good alternative), my backpack is drenched, and I have not seen the sun in days. 

Not to mention one of the boys in my class was like a wet dog today, shaking the water he had collected on to all of us. 

Lovely.

Surely this is just a simple misunderstanding. 

Why else would it be so cold? 

I see you are trying to make an effort by keeping the pollen in the air, but that's just not quite as fun. 

So please, Mother Nature, hear me out; I'm just trying to keep you and the weather people on good terms with everyone. 

Love always, 
Mandiee 



Now that that's settled, let's hope that the sun will come out tomorrow (did anyone else just get transported back to their childhood and start singing Annie in their head? I know I did.) Frankly, I need it to. 

As I mentioned before, my house is being redone. Long story short, it's still going on and my nose is definitely not happy about it. 

After seeing my doctor, she resolved that my house has so many allergins floating around that I'm having a bad allergic reaction to it (almost flu-like symptoms). Without the sun and warm weather, we can't open up our house to air it out. 

Lucky for me, J has been kind enough to host me again until it's safe for me to go home. I prefer to sleep without waking up to blow my nose every minute, thank you very much. J's kindness has been a huge relief (thank you, J!). 

However, my camera has been at my house and the theme of my eats has been simplicity due to not having the full contents of my pantry with me (though I may or may not have taken up quite a large portion all of J's fridge with the necessary produce). 

Do you have any allergies? How do you deal with them. If not, how's this crazy weather affecting you?

Anyway, here's what you've missed: 



I made an orange and lemon vegan cheesecake for Mother's day. All naturally sweetened and 100% vegan. I should mention that I managed to use up a whole 23 oz bottle of agave for it + more?! Wowza! 

 It was another Candle Cafe recipe, though sadly it doesn't compare at all to their vegan chocolate mousse pie recipe. My family always begs me to make that one but this time we thought we'd change it up.  


The goo (I wish I could come up with a better word! goo seems kind of gross, don't you think?) on top is an orange glaze that thickened too much. Whoopsies. It did smell quite nice, though. 




I also enjoyed another wonderful sauteed portobello mushroom with millet, carrots, and spinach with cukes. My neighbor works at the farmer's market and is kind enough to give us an insider information and hand pick our produce. I asked her if she had large caps, and oh boy, did she deliver!  





To soothe my allergies, I made a simple dinner with a sweet potato, asparagus, brussel sprouts, and almond butter sauce. The fresh asparagus from my neighbor were definitely the star of the show, though the perfectly soft and caramelized sweet p should not be over looked. Fresh produce that is cooked just right makes all the difference, my friends. 


Just look at that sauce! I simply mixed Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk with Maranatha raw almond butter. To help it mix better, I microwaved it a bit and stirred with a fork. You know, to catalyze the reaction a bit (yes, I did just have a bio test, incase you were wondering.) Then, I popped it in the fridge for all of two minutes (no joke) to let it thicken. Topped with cinnamon, this was favorite food heaven. 





Speaking of favorite foods, remember the hummus-y goodness I told you about last week? This is it. I have no words this kind of goodness. 


This baby was about the size of my head and loaded with broccoli, cauliflower, kabocha, millet, with a hummus blob to finish it off. Am I exaggerating the size and quality of this beastly bowl? Not at all. These are my favorite veggies; I wouldn't kid about such a thing. 



It seems as though this post is already pretty loaded but I still have much more to show. Oh well, I guess that means you'll be hearing from me pretty soon. I really would like to post more often, but my allergy situation is making it a bit hard. If the rain stays away, maybe things will get better.

Do any of you bloggers worry that if you blog more often, less people will see your posts? Readers, how do you feel about this? 

I know it sounds silly, but I honestly worry about this. I guess I just enjoy my eats so much that I want to share them with you all. I know that I enjoy looking at other blogs for combinations so I just want to put my combos out there as well. Hey, if you enjoy broccoli, cauliflower, kabocha, and millet as much as I do, then I've just done my job as a blogger for posting this. Thank you. 

Have a lovely day! 

xox, 
Mandiee

P.S. Thank you all so much for the wonderful response to my Greenies post! I really love this recipe and I'm so excited that you all are intrigued. With a belief in whole foods and that cooking from scratch is all the better, I hope some of you will venture into trying my recipe or even venturing into making your own. Food is all what you like so play around and have fun with it!

11 comments:

  1. you are adorable as always (i know ive said this too many times.. but then again i dont think i can say it enuff ya know!?) <3

    oh i so worry sometimes that if i post too quick ppl cant see it. i try to do a post everyday but sometimes its better when i skip a day.. i notice more get a chance to comment.

    allergies suck! i cant have wheat or dairy BUMMER! well i do take an enzyme to help digest yogurt and such since i love it... but the wheat one is hard to live by. i can get rebellious.. but then my tummy hates me forever lol. xoxo

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  2. I love this post! Both your "cheesecake" and your almond butter sauce sound freaking amazing. Anyway you could post the cheesecake recipe? I've been looking for a good vegan one for a while.

    Also, I'm loving your broccoli/cauliflower/kabocha/millet combo, although I have a confession to make: I've never tried kabocha OR millet. BUT I bet it's amazing and that is why I love it. lol.

    Raw almond butter is the best! I haven't bought it in forever, so I just decided to make it myself. I agree, let's chat and become best friends! hahaha. It's nice to find someone else my age that understands my diet and weird eating habits, all though I'm still trying to figure them out myself sometimes.

    I've been a vegetarian for 2 1/2 years, but I've been experimenting with veganism for the past couple months. It's been great and I've really loved it, but I've had a hard time with the lack of protein. My body is craving it really badly and I don't want to deprive it of what it needs, you know? Not to mention, I've lost some weight since becoming vegan, and I swear I hear "you're so skinny!" at LEAST once a day. It kind of drives me crazy, especially when boys say it to me. So for now I'm attempting to add the occasional serving of cottage cheese and greek yogurt back in.. that's all though, and hopefully it will help. Everything else I eat is vegan. So I dunno, we'll see where that takes me lol.

    Umm wow. I'm sorry. I just realized how incredibly random that was haha. You did not ask for a life story on my current eating habits.

    Anyway, I would share my POM juice with you if I could! I bet they'll contact you soon anyway; you have more readers than I do so they definitely should! :) Thanks for the compliments on my background. I'm glad you like it, because I wasn't sure whether or not to keep it haha. Good to know!

    Sorry for this monstrous book-of-a-comment. I'm done now. :P

    Kelsey

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  3. Funnily enough I used to worry about this! But I realized that less people actually see my posts when I blog less often. Also, with an external thing like Google Reader, you see all new/ unread posts so it's not a worry. ;)

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  4. I'm lucky not to have any allergies, but my boyfriend is plagued by them and I always feel so badly for him! Hopefully it gets nice again soon and you can air your house out!

    I blog pretty consistently once a day, just because it fits into my schedule! More people do see each post if I leave it up for a few day, but I like posting each day of eats as it happens.

    That cheesecake looks to die for, by the way :) Happy Friday love!!

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  5. Haha, great post! Mother Nature, I second this!

    To reply to your comment on non-dairy cheese, besides Daiya I also really like Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet - but it melts a lot better when you shred it first! I always sprinkle a little garlic salt on it too for some extra flavor. Keep me posted girl! :)

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  6. Hi there - love your post as usual - you always inspire me to try new things and I LOVE the recipes!!!! SOrry to hear about your allergies - hope u are feeling better tomorrow.
    I definately worry if i don't blogg enough and then I worry my posts are boring!! I love yours though!!!!! Have a great weekend!!!! xo aimee

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  7. Allergies suuuuck. And that cheesecake looks delish! Also I must try making that almond butter sauce for sweet potatoes. It sounds right up my alley!

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  8. Oh my gosh that cheesecake looks so yummy :) I actually am so lucky that i dont seem to have any allergens! I need to buy me a pair of rain boots too, I keep wearing flip flops because i am wishing for summer then complain when my feet get all wet and pruney!

    I love almond butter sauce on sweet potatos, that it one of my al time favorite combination's! :)

    Enjoy your weekend girl!

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  9. Haha Mother Nature and I had a little convo earlier this week - thank goodness she listened to me!

    That cheesecake looks awesome! I bet your mama lurvvvved it!

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  10. I'm lactose intolerant and I know that I have an intolerance towards other foods but I have yet to figure out what they are. I'm also starting to suspect some kind of allergy to something around me as my eyes have been itching like crazy, my nose is plugged, and I've been sneezing. It's so annoying and I'm not happy. Boo to allergies!

    I worry that if I post more often people will over look my posts but since I never get around to posting as much as I would like, I guess I have nothing to truly worry about.

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  11. i blog daily and there is no way given what i do i could ever do more than that...i would rather do 1 big post than 3 smaller ones like some of the other ladies do. to each her own and whatever works, roll with it!

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