So, Nemesis, we meet again...

I came home from Trader Joe's today and began my not-so-favorite task of putting the groceries away. It was then that I was forced to meet...(pause for dramatic effect) my nemesis!
(Dun, dun, dun, lightning flashes, fog rolls through my kitchen, you get it)

His name is Mr. Freezer. And right now, we are NOT friends.
We have a freezer full of perfectly good EVERYTHING. I mean, seriously that freezer is jam packed--chicken, steaks, salmon, even shrimp. (Unfortunately, this whole vegan switch happened immediately after a Costco trip. Umm, sorry, honey...) And I'm not opposed to making it. I figure, better to eat it than let it go to waste, right? Problem is, I just don't want it. Ugh. How's that for a First World problem? "Meh...I have so much food, it's just not food that I want." I want to punch myself in the face every time I open the darn freezer.

I mosey into the kitchen to make myself a breakfast smoothie. This conflict ensues--"Okay, Mr. Freezer Man, cut a girl a break. I just want to retrieve my frozen strawberries in peace." Nope. Not happening. This little bastard stares me down as if to say, "Oh, you poor naive, little herbivore, surely you must know, you cannot have your breakfast smoothie without 15lbs. of GUILT staring at you. MUAHAHA!!" Seriously, he's that dramatic. Punk.

I need to find a way to end this. It's getting ridiculous. The hatred I have for this inanimate object is just....stupid. I need to start cooking the stuff, I just don't know where to start. WHO HAS THIS PROBLEM???? Ridiculous person, party of one.

File this one under, "Unforeseen Vegan Problems".
It's that or "Crazy People".

Update of my veggification

Alrighty, so it's been about four weeks of my more-or-less vegan adventure. I've had meat about four times in the last few weeks and a few cheesy cheats. Other than that, I'm doing alright. No crazy cravings, no terrible "I'm missing out on EVERYTHING" feelings. I've been having a good time expanding my cooking repertoire and discovering new ingredients. Eric has been such a good sport through it all. It helps that, with his new schedule, he gets plenty of meat and cheese at the firehouse, so he doesn't quite mind skipping out on it at home. Although there have been a few nights when he just looks at me, and I know the poor guy's still hungry. It baffles me, but then again, I'm pretty used to the new meal plan by now. My newest challenge for myself is to find plenty of recipes that I can make vegan and normal without too much extra time (or extra dirty dishes. *cough* lazy.)

So on this winding road of change and challenge, I thought I'd share a few discoveries I have made:

1. No two ways about it, I don't like tofu. It's official. Not my fave.
Ok, now it's out there. Glad to get that off my chest. I've tried multiple recipes in the past few weeks that have brought me to this conclusion. Tempeh (a combo of soybeans, brown rice and millet), however, big fan. Makes very yummy tacos.

2. It is possible to eat, what I'll call "technically vegan" and have a horrible diet. Maybe that's obvious, but I just figured it out. I'm pretty sure a lot of high schoolers are ;) Most sodas, Fritos, Jolly Ranchers--technically vegan. Who knew? Not me. I figured this out after making a one time mistake of buying TJ's corn chips as a treat, cuz "hey, they're vegan." Yeah, won't be doing that again anytime soon. Also butter-less kettlecorn. I bought a delicious bag of it the other day. I destroyed it in one night. Problem--yes. Haha, oh what an interesting time this has been :)So let it be known--even vegans have their "only once in a while" vices.

3. Eating out. Where to start. This will have to be a two part-er. I've found that eating vegan has forced me to prepare. Lots of ahead of time reading of menus online to avoid being self conscious while ordering (I have a phobia of being "that girl," whatever that means). We went to the Yardhouse for my brother-in-law's birthday last weekend and I'd had my pasta dish planned out to order a week in advance. I mean, at least it was something to look forward to, which is cool...right? Anyways, while I was at it, I went ahead and looked up the menus of several restaurants that Eric and I usually go to with friends which brings me too...

3B. My cheat sheet. Chipotle--totally vegan friendly and delicious. Veggie bowl, skip the animal products, pile on the guacamole and you're good to go. Jersey Mikes--a veggie sandwich, no cheese, Mike's way. They might look at you like you're crazy, but trust me it's delicious! Elephant bar had a veggie stir fry bowl as does Lazy Dog. And when all else fails, pretty much everywhere offers a pasta w/ marinara dish. It can be a tad annoying, but it works out. And online menus are a lifesaver :)

4. I have a super patient husband. He's been a very understanding and supportive pal through it all and this is a lot coming from my steak and potatoes man. I made him a homemade veggie burger and he smiled and complemented the flavor. I tried a new meatless pasta, he couldn't wait to try it. Dinner didn't quite fill him up and he shrugged it off and poured a bowl of cereal--this has happened multiple times. What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.

5. Chef Chloe Coscarelli's cookbook, Chloe's Kitchen. Nuff said.

6. My new junk food occasional indulgences(don't judge)--TJ's has vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies AND animal crackers. I KNOW. Meatless corndogs and orange 'chicken' are also good finds. Soy ice cream and yogurt nom, nom, nom. Never thought I'd have once-a-week treats as a vegan.

7. I cooked chicken today and it made me nauseous. Never saw that coming. I honestly decided to try vegan more for health reasons than ethical. I used to cook chicken all the time and it never bothered me. But today while prepping chicken for Eric's tacos, I saw the veins. Never got to me before. Maybe it's just been a while. Strange.

8. I have decidedly not lost my taste for sushi. I am okay with that. We go about twice a month. I think there are worse indulgences I could choose.

Well, I think I've gone on enough. That's the latest update!
Still loving the (more or less) veggie life :) we'll see where it goes.

Veggie-saurus

I love food. Good LORD, do I love food. I love everything, the colors, the aromas, the prepping, COOKING. Love, love, LOVE it. And now, thanks to Netflix, I have an intense addiction to food documentaries. First it was Food Inc., which brought me into the world of organic produce and meat. Then it was Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead--my lovely and observant husband bought me a juicer for Valentine's day after noting my obsession with that one. Best. gift. ever. But my latest cinematic delight is Forks Over Knives. I highly recommend it, simply because it's fascinating. After watching that flick, doing a lot of online reading and research, and trying a bunch of recipes, I'm having a go at something I never, ever thought I would do--go vegan. I mean, I used to think the very idea was crazy--no meat OR fish? No....no cheese?!!! How do you live?! Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm simply dabbling at the moment. I'm still eating the occasional piece of cheese. I had sushi on Sunday. My favorite shoes are still my oh-so-NOT vegan chic leather boots. Oh well.
But over the past few days, I'm slowly starting to think this could be something that really changes my life.
I'm not gonna lie--I cried a bit the first time I watched Food Inc. last year. Watching cows cry over losing their babies, the animals walking around ankle to knee deep in their own excrement. Oh my. This is coming from me--the girl who always joked about PETA--People Eating Tasty Animals. While I'm not raising my PETA flag anytime soon, my heart got one of those "something is not right" tugs. That started my free range, organic meat only shopping. Then Forks Over Knives got to me offering health benefits that seemed too good to not at least research. More energy? Lower risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease...? Lose a little extra weight I've got hanging around--perk, to be sure. So I decided why not give it a go? It's something new, a new cooking challenge to get myself out of my kitchen rut. Why not commit a couple of days a week to trying? So I bought some tofu, loaded up my fridge with fresh produce and my cabinets with soy milk. I traded butter for a "buttery spread" (whatever that means!) and am thoroughly enjoying not being afraid of carbs. Truth be told, I love bread and pasta waaaaaaay more than meat, so that's a plus.
Let me tell ya--I'm actually really loving it! I thought I'd be dying and hating life, but I feel great. I went from "ehhhh maybe a day or two" to just going for it and enjoying the occasional "forbidden fruit" so to speak. I feel energized and healthier than I've felt in a really long time! A huge help (and another addiction) came when I stumbled upon a blog for Chef Chloe, a young, California girl vegan chef who kicked butt on Cupcake Wars with vegan cupcakes. Oh my gosh, I'm OBSESSED with this girl's recipes! In about an hour, I tore through her website and ordered her cookbook. My cookbook arrived today and I must say, I'm inspired and thrilled down to my toes! Come on, who'da thought you could make vegan cinnamon rolls? Or creamy (albeit cream-less) pesto pasta? (amazing, by the way). I just finished a roll of homemade vegan sushi--mind: blown.
So, that's the "What's going on in my kitchen" update. It's been an enjoyable experiment so far. We'll see if it sticks. I hope it does! I'm thinking, if I still crave it, reserve meat and cheese and such for celebrations and special occasions. Soooo yeah. I'll keep ya posted and let ya know how it goes :) In the mean time, yay for plant food.

Marriage kills......haha just kidding.

A little over a year ago, I was newly engaged, heart all aflutter and eager to start my new life with my soon to be husband. It was such a lovely, exciting time. So it always struck me as odd that when I told people I was getting married, very often I was met with a gasp and "...but you're so young."
By the way they said it, you'd have thought I said, "I'm terminally ill." It was quite perplexing. The strangely condescending looks and comments that came when people noticed my no-longer-nake- left hand abounded. Word on the street is young marriage will kill you, strip you of your freedom, suck the life out of you and leave you a joyless, travel-less, adventure-less being. Riiiight.

Since I'm young and I'm married, it's often assumed that I'm some sort of "advocate" for young marriage. I'm not. I don't think there's anything wrong with having things you want to accomplish by a certain age or before getting married. That's great. I also don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to get married.

I'm all for getting married when you're supposed to. If that's when you're 20, well, pop the sparkling cider and mazel tov to you. If it's in your 40s, that's wonderful too. When it's meant to be, it's meant to be. But for some reason, young marriage is often seen (in my experience) as an uneducated mistake, naively throwing your life away. Well, I'm here to say young marriage, for the right reasons, can be swell. I daresay wonderful and exciting. Quite the opposite of how it was presented to me. I thought I'd take some time today to tell ya the truth. This is mythbusters, marriage style. Note, I'm just talking about marriage. We haven't been blessed with our own little monkeys yet, so my perspectives are purely those of a new wife, (hopeful) not yet mother. Here are the myths, debunked, in no particular order.



1. You can still travel when you're married! I know the general belief is that marriage basically clips your wings and puts you in a cage. But guess what? It's not true. Since Eric and I have been married, I've been on several great trips to places I've never been before. Nothing exotic, but enough to feed my desire to keep moving around. I even got to go Minnesota (of Kardashian fame ;) to see my sister. The best part about traveling now is that I have a built in traveling buddy. I can't even tell you now many trips I planned when I was single that fell through because of my friends' schedules. But now I have my adventure partner and in the next few months, we have a couple of trips planned! Little things. A road trip up the coast to Oregon, a belated honeymoon to wherever. Maybe I won't always travel on a whim, or every six months or even every year, but when I do, I know I will have someone by my side to turn to and say, "Isn't this amazing?" Up above is me at Lake Havasu

2.You can still go out with friends! Sure things change and you find yourself saying things like, "Let me check with my husband." Then you'll giggle to yourself over saying "husband." Maybe you check the bank account to make sure it fits in the budget. Nevertheless, girls night out still exists. I'm not gonna lie, you're interests shift a little. I don't really do the single girl scene. I don't really want to talk about that hot guy over there. My hot guy's at home. Eric feels the same way. But even though more often than not we do couple things, we're okay with each other taking the occasional night out with just the girls/guys.

From my last outing--The Pistol Annies concert in Hollywood with two of my favorite ladies.

3.You can still participate in the fun, wacky traditions of you're singlehood. Example: You can still do New Year's Eve. Why not? Who doesn't love a good sparkly dress, a built in dance partner and a guaranteed midnight kiss? Heck, you can even still be that couple whose midnight kiss seems to last a little too long....not that we're guilty or anything..;) You can still do the shots and dance til your feet hate you. Every now and then, a good ridiculous time is nice. We had a few of those while living in AZ. They're even better when you're together.

New Year's Eve in San Diego with a few of our favorite people

Flagstaff, AZ--twas here that we helped cross a few shots off the tequila list.

4. Adventure still exists. I mean, marriage itself is a pretty huge adventure. But let me just say in the past seven months, we both swam next to a waterfall, I jumped off a cliff, Eric fed a giraffe, I conquered an amazing hike all by me onesie. Eric fought fire in multiple states, I learned to cook. We were homeless for 48 hours, we moved three times, and we're looking forward to adding another Nicholson to our tiny apartment. Yep, life is still exciting.

me vs. the waterfall

Eric with the giraffe--he's so proud of this picture :)

Yes, marriage definitely changes you. It changes your life in the most profound way. But I promise it doesn't ruin your life. I'm lucky. More than that, I'm blessed. This is what God called me too. My age, though significant, is irrelevant. God asked Mary to carry a His son when she was 14. His will isn't age specific. For me, it was to get married at 21. Sure, the world told me my life was over and doomed to regret. Me? I'm satisfied.

Merry......Tuesday?

While driving home the other night I heard several interesting commercials on the radio--Give the gift of hairplugs for the holidays! Give the gift of plastic surgery for the holidays! Now, I could go on for hours about the idea of gifting such, shall we say, personal gifts. But the most interesting thing to me is the novelty that is "the holidays."

First things first--I am fully aware that there are indeed multiple religious holidays in December. I do, in fact, fully believe in the right to celebrate these holidays! So stay with me. I am not here to bash other faiths.

No. My fascination lies with the sudden need to exterminate...dare I say it? Christmas! Ok, it's done, the "C" word is out. I have been told many times, that due to fear of offending anyone, Christmas just simply cannot be uttered. Uhhhh huh.

Just this morning, I turned on my TV to a lovely IHOP commercial. Now, I love fluffy, syrup covered treats for breakfast as much as the next girl, so this ad had my attention. I watch as they serve up a plate of pancakes with red and green sprinkles! Yum! Yes, it's true, the new "holiday" pancakes are here.

Come on. Can we call a spade a spade, please? Because the last time I checked, Hanukkah is commonly represented with the colors of blue and silver (please, correct me if I am wrong.). Christmas is commonly represented with red and green. So why must we neutralize Christmas? I would understand the need for plurality if other colors were used, but alas, there were none.

Think about it--all things Christmas must be neutralized, taken apart and rearranged to cater to....who? I know of no other holidays that celebrate by decorating trees and hanging stockings. So why are Christmas trees and Christmas stockings suddenly reduced to Holiday trees and Holiday stockings? These traditions are unique to the holiday celebrated among Christian denominations--the holiday celebrating the birth of Christ.

Many people I have listened to about this subject have explained to me that relating Christ to CHRISTmas, is far too offensive. We must be an open, free thinking people! Free of any prejudices. Many of the same people have explained to me at different times that we also need to be free of greed! Free of self centered consumerism!!!

Uhhhh huh.

So let me get this straight, to be free of prejudices, we must deny Christians the world over the basic right to use the proper name for one of their biggest holidays ? Other holidays are just fine, but a Christian one cannot be tolerated. How free thinking and open minded. It seems prejudice against Christianity is the only legal prejudice there is left. Somewhere along the way, Jesus replaced Lord Voldemort as "the one we don't speak of."

Now, free of greed and self centered consumerism, I can get behind that! This year, it is my goal to try to purchase as many gifts as possible through charitable organizations. I say this not out of pride, but because I think it is very important for me to really reflect on the meaning of this "holiday"--peace and good will towards men, Christ centered love of neighbor.

But what happens when you take Christ out of Christmas? Well then, we have a baseless holiday! It has no purpose, no meaning, no tradition. When children ask why we get presents, what do we tell them is the occasion? What exactly are we celebrating? I was told that the meaning of Christmas is simply to be with family and the people who matter the most. Lovely. But aren't we about to do that with Thanksgiving? No, I am not saying that Thanksgiving has no other basis or tradition. My point is we gather with those we love annually on Thanksgiving. But there are no presents. Why? Hmmm.

Birthdays are an annual event. Birthdays have presents. Is there any special birthday to commemorate on December 25th by giving a loved one a gift as an expression of your love and appreciation?? No. Absolutely not. That is not politically correct. Problem is, by removing the meaning from Christmas, have we not just created a greedy, wish list induced, self-centered consumer based holiday? Wordy, but wasn't that a problem in the first place???

Perhaps Shakespeare was not quite on the money. Perhaps that which we call a rose, by any other name, does not always smell as sweet.

Give me Christmas back. Give us all Christmas back. I don't want a menorah to be renamed a "holiday candelabra," I just want to call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree. I happily respect the traditions of other faiths. Please respect mine. And give back to the world a concept that it so desperately needs--peace and good will towards men.

God bless.
And, though a bit premature, Merry Christmas and a blessed holiday to you.

Adventure is out there!

I love adventure. Always have. As a kid, I pretended I was mountain climbing by scaling our stairs with a clothes hanger in my hand. In my head I was always going to some grand place--a rainforest in South America (it's like America, but south!), having tea in London, on a quest in the African jungle, and on and on. It's amazing how your sense of adventure changes as you grow up. Not that it dies, but how we adapt to see the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. When I was little, adventure seemed to require getting on a plane to some far off mystical land and taming elephants. And in all truth, I did get one "far off mystical land" experience (elephants, not included). Ireland was the trip of a lifetime. Mama dearest and I conquered the tiny country with little more than a map, a car, and the kindness of others. Adventure indeed! Life endangering at one point, but you can ask my mom about that (hehehe). I don't know if I'll get there again. Shoot, I don't know if I will ever make it out of the country again. But adventure still beckons. Life for the past two years has indeed shown me that! Job changes and getting married and moving to Arizona--not on my list of thrilling destinations from the past, but this, I soon realized, was a mistake on my part!--moving again! Now Bakersfield. I admit this did not immediately strike me as a hub of international delight. Heck, neither did Arizona. But lately I have been discovering the adventure that lies within me own home! (yes, "me" and not "my"). In my kitchen, to be exact! Which leads me to my latest quest as...........(pause for dramatic effect) Culinary Conquistador!!!...ok, the name needs work, but you get the idea. I've always liked to bake and cook. But I do believe that lately I have been falling in love. My kitchen has become my private jet, my epic ship and my beat up roadtrip car. I have ventured to the homelands Italy and Mexico, to the deep south and the deep sea, to tropical islands and dessert heaven. In the past few months, I have discovered that mangoes, basil and brie belong in chicken, that truffle oil will make anything amazing, that white wine and cream are the fairy godmother to a pasta Cinderella. Red wine and balsamic vinegar glaze over filet mignon? Seriously, TRY IT. My list of places to explore has grown with France and Japan at the very top :) (crepes and sushi? sushi crepes? hmmm) I have dabbled in France before, but I think it's time for an all out excursion and exploration. From there, who knows? Germany, India maybe. I think that each week, I am going to try to make at least two things that I have never made before, be it a main dish, side, dessert, or whole meal. Last night was just plain old leftover mom's meatloaf and mashed potatoes (despite my recent explorations, this remains Eric's favorite find. Easy enough). I had woken up the night before with an acute longing for chocolate molten cake. It was still there when I woke up, so off to the market I scampered with my ingredient list in hand. And what fun! I felt like I had ventured off to a magical place with chocolate I had never heard of before (because 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate is soooo exotic ;) And at home putting the plates together complete with vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate fudge, I was in presentation heaven. The best part is, since there's still only two of us (until a whole other adventure starts), I now have 8 little cakes sitting in my freezer (for emergency purposes, of course). *disclaimer--that is not my cake in the picture. My ganache did not have such panache.* Wonderfully enough, this has become quite a spiritual experience as well. Some say beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, but I say it's good food. It's fascinating how so many natural things can combine to make something so delicious. I mean, seriously if God didn't like us, there would be no cacao beans, no berries ( a recent thought while devouring crepes). Here I have found my indulgence for my inner child's taste for exploration and my taste buds. Perhaps the only Italy I see for a while will be in my own kitchen. If that's so, then I intend to explore it. So here it is. My new charter, my declaration of exploration. Adventure is out there! And by there, I mean literally over there in the next room over.

Onward!

Oh my goodness, it has been quite a while. So much has happened in so little time. As I write this, I am sitting in Bakersfield, weary from a morning of blog overhaul (oh, the horror)and thinking about the past year. What an adventure it has been. Shoot, the past three months! I got married, moved to Arizona, hated Arizona, fell in love with Arizona, started a new job, quit said job, packed my leeettle apartment up and moved to Bakersfield (twice, but that's a looong story) for Eric's new job in Kern County. Yikes. Needless to say, I have been a bit of a stress case lately (I've got the skin to prove it). But through it all, happy times--there have been many. Once I find the magical cord that gets my pictures out of the camera, I will introduce you to my love, Flagstaff, AZ as seen by moi (sooo thrilling, right?) For now, I shall regale you with my tales of newlyweddedness.

I married Eric on July 8th. He's been my best friend since we were in high school and we basically grew up together, which is lovely :) this is one of my favorite pictures from the day. It had been a very trying week and all I wanted was a big hug and a second to breathe. I got it right after the ceremony and it was literally a second! haha such a whirlwind of a day. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to post more than one picture at a time, but once I do, I'll post a few more of the day, particularly the ceremony. I spent a lot of time in tears. I was so overwhelmed by God and his sweetness. I felt so humbled with gratitude thinking, "All of this is for me and he is just for me? Do you really love me that much?" So lovely. Hard to believe it was already three months ago. And speaking of, I must sign off now and do the task that has been haunting me all this time--thank you cards. With so much running around the past few months, they are now packed in a box that I need to locate and open and complete. Hopefully, I will stop feeling horrible after that.