Loving the Loving Hut

Over the weekend, Joel and I went to the Chiller Theater Expo.  It was a lot of fun.  We got to meet some horror celebrities and buy some great horror stuff.  After the expo, we went to Loving Hut because we were starving and it was nearby and vegan.  We have been to a Loving Hut in Philadelphia but this one is in Ledgewood, NJ and it was quite a bit different.  The one in Philadelphia had more healthy options, while the one in Ledgewood had more junk food options.  Loving Huts are a chain of vegan almost fast food type restaurants.  The prices are pretty great.  Overall the food is great for the price you pay.  As an appetizer we had summer rolls.  I’ve have better summer rolls before but these were tasty and the peanut dipping sauce was excellent.  For my meal, I got the Crispy Chipotle Burger.  The sweet potato fries were amazing.  They were nice and crispy on the outside and warm and soft inside.  They had a wonderful sweet taste.  The burger was pretty good.  I very much enjoyed the creamy slightly spicy sauce for the burger.  The burger was probably a 7/10, which is pretty darn good for a fast food burger.  Joel’s meal was very similar to mine and just as tasty.  In Philadelphia, they have the Loving Hut Sandwich.  I highly recommend anyone visiting a Loving Hut to get that if they have it.  Its only $5.95, it’s huge and it’s really delicious.  Overall, this is a great place to grab a quick bite to eat but it doesn’t really work for a romantic dinner.

Capability

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the incredible things our bodies are capable of.  When we push ourselves we are capable of so much.  Reading about people who have completed marathons in just over two hours and watching shows about what people are willing to endure just to survive makes me think a lot about what my body is capable of.  I think part of the reason I want to run this marathon is to test those limits.  I see a lot of people who just sit around watching TV eating crappy foods never doing anything and I don’t understand that mentality.  Many of them are fortunate enough to be capable of getting out and pushing themselves but they don’t.  As someone who has challenges (asthma, arthritis, severe allergies), I have to push myself that much harder and to see people get into this rut of excuses not to do anything it makes me sad for them.  I hope I always live an active life, constantly finding new adventures.    

Wednesday I went for a 45 minute trail run.  It was cold and raining and I had to run through mud and puddles but I have to say I’ve never felt more alive.  What an amazing run.  I felt very connected with myself and nature at the same time and I pushed myself harder than I ever had.  If only all runs could be this great.

Rain & Run

It’s raining here.  The rain always coerces me to become contemplative.  I find myself staring out the window at the lush greens and deep hues of the trees and begin reflecting.  Usually, I like to listen to some music while staring at the slowly building puddles.  Today, I’ve been listening to the new ohGr a lot.  I feel like I’m in a good place.  I feel like I have direction.  The rain also brings me pain.  My knees have been very achy.  I’m not sure if it is from the rain or from running or from the combination of the two. 

Yesterday I found my 30 minute run to be somewhat easier.  I paced myself and by the time the 30 minutes were up it was a much easier run than Monday’s run.  I find myself enjoying the runs more and afterwards I feel great, I feel like I can do anything but I’m still waiting to feel that runner’s high during the run.  I also hopped on the elliptical for 30 minutes and went on a walk in the park with a friend.  I got to play in the playground which made me feel like a kid again.  I never want to fully grow up. 

Today I am adding the final touches to my new Mango Lassi tea.  It smells wonderful and fills the kitchen with a creamy mango scent.  I used a rooibos base and added some cardamom for a touch of spice and some calendula shreds, mango pieces, and natural flavoring.  Right now, it’s perfect for my mood and this rainy weather.  I love the warm sweet and spicy flavor right now.  Yesterday I got a call from a library that would like me to do several tea presentations at different libraries.  This could be a great way to gain more exposure.    

First Goal Accomplished!

Yay!  Yesterday I made it to 30 minutes of trail running.  Now that I am able to do 30 minutes, I’d like to stay at 30 minutes for a week or two until it gets to be a real comfortable run, then I will aim for 45 minutes.  While running, I was focusing on the mantra that the mind will give out before the body so that I could push myself harder and it really worked.  Unfortunately, I was slacking off a bit and did not get around to running until midday and that was a problem because it happened to be super hot and humid out.  Near the end of my run my body got real cold and I got goose bumps which has only happened a few times in my life and it’s generally not a good sign.  I also noticed that my heart rate was up way high.  It’s important to be careful when running in the heat and I was definitely not.  I should know better since I don’t do well in the heat and part of that probably has to do with my medications. 

After the run I went to see my allergist to get shots but I also discussed my medications with him.  My doctor is taking me off the nasal spray I’m using because it might be the reason why I’m in the beginning stages of glaucoma.  Instead he wants me to use the neti pot once a day in the morning.  It’s not too often that a doctor prescribes a homeopathic remedy.  In fact, my other allergist completely disagrees on the validity of the neti pot.  The neti pot did cure a sinus infection that I had, so I tend to believe that it is quite useful.  For the last 2-3 weeks I have been waking up with horrible sinus pains.  The nose spray was not helping.  Today I used the neti pot and it did relive about 70% of the pressure.  I’ll need to see how it works out in the long run.  So, now I am down to 2 regular medications and 2 emergency medications.  This makes me feel a little better.  I hate being on medications.          

French Onion Pie FTW!

Today I made two french onion pies.  I need to have something easy to bring over to my in-laws tomorrow for Easter so I thought this would be perfect.  I have one pie for today and one to share tomorrow.  The recipe itself was rather easy.  Well, almost easy because slicing 5 onions was making me tear up like crazy.  Even Joel & Will were having trouble dealing with the onions.  The recipe came out great.  The pies are delicious with a great mix of sweet onions, creamy filling, and warm pie crust.  Next time I think I will experiment with adding other veggies and maybe even some tomatoes.  This recipe comes from The Vegan Table which I love.  I've seen this book get some poor reviews but everything I've made from it has been delicious.  Here's the recipe:

 Ingredients       

    2 uncooked vegan pie shells, thawed

    1 tablespoon oil or non-dairy butter

    5 large yellow onions, thinly sliced

    4 cloves garlic, minced

    1 teaspoon sugar

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk

    15 oz extra firm tofu, crumbled

    1/2 teaspoon black pepper

    1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

    5 tablespoons flour

    2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)

Directions        

Preheat oven to 350 and bake pie crusts for 10 minutes, until crust starts to color. Remove from oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil over medium heat, add onions and garlic, and sauté until translucent. Add sugar and salt and continue cooking for another 15-30 minutes (longer for more carmelization).  Its worth caramelizing the onions, they taste great in the pie.  

Meanwhile add the remaining ingredients in blender and process until smooth. Transfer to onions in pan and mix with onions.  Remove from heat.

Spread mixture into pie crust and bake for 45 minutes, until the top is slightly firm and the crust is golden. Slice and serve.

  

Papa Ganache

 

In Keyport, New Jersey there is a small vegan bakery that specializes in cupcakes called Papa Ganache.  This place is about an hour from us, so we only go there on rare occasions and when we do go we stock up.  Joel was supposed to go to a magic tournament today but he got cancelled on so he brought up the idea of us going there again.  Of course I jumped at the idea.   

  

 

The bakery is very small and only has about one case of cupcakes and a few other pastries but they are delicious and pretty imaginative.  All of the staff is super friendly and knowledgeable and the owner is very sweet and enthusiastic.  She even took my cell to explain all the options to my friend.  This is the second time I’ve been there and since the last time only a few cupcakes were the same.    

 

I’m not sure if I remember all the descriptions correctly here is what I think we got (yeah we know it’s a lot, don’t judge us): cinnamon bun, fudge brownie, chocolate chip sandwich with vanilla frosting, mini carrot cake (with real carrots) with bunny vanilla frosting, peanut butter banana cupcake, banana nut cupcake, almond cupcake with real strawberry frosting, mud cupcake with gummy worms, coconut cream pie tort, chocolate cheesecake, strawberry pineapple cheesecake, and blueberry cheesecake.  The cheesecakes are amazing and very creamy.  So far, I have loved every cupcake except the shnozberry cupcake which I would just say is rated as good.  Most of their cupcakes range from really yummy to amazing.  The cinnamon bun and chocolate chip sandwhich were quite good as well.  I would highly recommend this vegan bakery to anyone that loves cupcakes. For any gluten-free people out there, there is an entire shelf dedicated to gluten-free cupcakes.

Papa Ganache

25 Church St

Keyport, NJ 07735

(732) 217-1750

www.papaganache.com

Today's Run & Food Talk

Today I woke up an hour and a half later than usual and for the rest of the morning I was sluggish and exhausted.  The outdoor temperature was in the 30s or 40s and I just didn’t want to run but I sucked it up, put on my snowboarding Under Armour, and ran in the park anyways.  I am so glad I did because I had an amazing run.  I ran a challenging trail and finished running up a steep hill.  I made it to 28 minutes today.  I must confess I did have one mishap.  While running a trail I didn’t see tree roots that were covered by leaves and I fell, well more like flew.  I hit my shoulder pretty bad but didn’t notice any pain until mid way through my cool down.  It was a pretty awesome fall though; first thing I did when I brushed myself off was check around to see if anyone saw.  Luckily I was in the middle of relatively unused trail and no one was around, so I dusted myself off and got right back into running.  Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about running and there seems to be one concept that keeps reoccurring and lately it’s been helping me to understand my own behavior.  The concept is that your mind will quit before your body does so it’s very important to train your mind as well as your body.  I love this idea and I find it to be very true for me.

 

Since I haven’t talked about food too much, I thought I’d talk a little bit about a few dishes I made this week.  Highlights of the week are Potato Tikka Masala with white rice and Naan, Chocolate Mango Sorbet with Coconut Flakes and Almond Slices, and Spicy Veggie & Tofu Stir Fry.  

A really easy desert to make is Chocolate Mango Sorbet with Coconut Flakes and Almond Slices.  I learned this desert from my days of raw food experimenting.  First, any fruit can be made into a yummy sorbet.  It’s very simple.  I like using mango but you can use any fruit.  Just slice it into chunks and put them on lightly oiled tinfoil and stick it in the freezer for a few hours.  Next place the frozen fruit in a food processor with half a banana and some agave if you would like to add some sweetness.  For chocolaty flavor add some raw cacao powder and top with whatever you like.  If you add cacao powder you will need to add a bit of sugar or it will be pretty bitter.

 

This week we also had a spicy stir fry.  Every time I make stir fry it’s different.  I like to experiment and try new things.  For the stir fry in the picture I used spaghetti, tofu, carrots, broccoli, orange peppers, garlic, broccoli, sesame seeds, green beans, onions, and baby portabella mushrooms.  This time I used a spicy stir fry sauce but my favorite sauce is Annie Chung’s Teriyaki.  Just as an FYI, I emailed Annie Chung’s to make sure its vegan.  It has an awesome sweetness to it.  My secrets to a good stir fry are to use high heat, stir constantly, and add in ingredients as I go so that the ingredients needing the longest cooking go in first. 

Another meal we had was the Potato Tikka Masala and white rice with Naan.  My husband love Chicken Tikka Masala and I was really trying hard to make something similar but vegan at home.  The meat substitutes never really worked for him, so I decided on using potato.  This led me to just modify an Aloo Mutter recipe.  Essentially, I just used that recipe as a base but added more tomato and water and at the end I used a ton of coconut yogurt and some vegan butter to give it a creamy consistency and taste.  It turned out pretty well.  The naan recipe I got from The Asian Vegan Kitchen.  It’s such an easy recipe that I use it every time, though I will say I usually end up adding a lot more soda water to the recipe. 

Failures and Victories

 Monday was a very defeating day for me.  I started out the day excited to run.  From the beginning I noticed my breathing was very labored then shortly into the run I began struggling for air.  After only 10 minutes I had to stop.  I could barely breathe and my throat felt like it was still closing in.  My eyes were blurred to the point where I could hardly see.  I was wondering why but when I looked around I noticed almost every lawn had weeds and every flower seemed to be blooming.  I am extremely allergic to weeds, flowers, and grass and had really forgotten about them being a problem.  As I was walking home I thought maybe I just won’t be able to run outdoors.    

Today I decided I would give running another shot.  Instead of running through my boring neighborhood, I drove to Veterans Park which is only 5 minutes from my house.  It was a beautiful run and I was back up to running 21 minutes even though there are a lot of hills and it was pretty hot out.  I ran the trails to make it even a little more challenging.  This time I took a puff of my inhaler right before the run.  A few years ago, I took some pictures from the park while I was walking so I thought I would post them.    

Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter & Vegan Vacation

Today I want to share my love of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.  I first found out about this product through Vegan Essentials (http://www.veganessentials.com) some time ago but I now purchase it at Whole Foods.  This thick hazelnut ‘butter’ has a rich and delicious dark chocolate flavor.  What could be better?  I have been known to eat this straight from the jar but I have really been digging it on whole wheat English muffins with either some tea or juice.  When I was making hazelnut raspberry jam thumbprint cookies, I added some of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter instead of plain hazelnut butter to give the cookie some chocolaty goodness.  The cookies went over really well with my friends and family.  I also find this ‘butter’ to be good on crackers for a desert-like treat.  Anyone have any cooking ideas for using this ‘butter’?  Notice in the picture of the English muffins there is a Puerto Rico mug.  Well, I thought I’d mention that I am going back to Puerto Rico and will be staying in the middle of the rain forest with no electricity at a vegan B&B.  This should be interesting.  I won't be going for a while but I will definitely post some pics of the vacation.

Run Amuck!

This week I started running outside and wow was I in for a shock.  On Monday I could only run about 10 minutes straight.  I thought since I was using the elliptical for 40 minutes a few times a week I shouldn’t have a problem but I guess the elliptical is way different than outside running.  After a few runs I am now comfortably up to 20 minutes of running.  I really want to do this the safe way so I have decided that running every other day is the safest way for me to train.  That should give my body enough rest time.  Motivation is very important to me and I like to have a lot of goals, so I found something that I could work towards that looks like a lot of fun.  It’s the Run Amuck Mud and Music Fest.  Essentially, it’s a challenging 5K run with hills, mud, water, and obstacles.  So, this gives me a little over a month to train for the course.  I’d like to be comfortably running 4 miles in time for this challenge.  Now, I just need to convince my husband that he wants to do this too, so far I’ve already recruited a few friends.  I’ll definitely be posting some pictures of the craziness.  Here’s a link to the site:  http://runamuckfestival.com/

My Introduction

Welcome to my blog! 

I’ve set up this writing space to detail my journey through life.  I intend to focus mainly on veganism, exercise, and tea.   

Most of my life I have been put off by meat but it wasn’t until 2005 that I went vegetarian and then in 2009 I became vegan for ethical reasons.  I really enjoy trying new vegan products, recipes, restaurants, and vacations and I intend to write a fair amount about these new experiences. 

 

Exercise and sports are another interest of mine.  Ever since I was 12 I was interested in weightlifting and before that I tried ballet, baseball, and softball.  Most of my life I have been extremely active and fit but in 2005 I broke my hand very badly which caused a great deal of pain and caused me to become depressed and gain about 60 pounds.  This was not an ordinary break and it took doctors a month and a half before they realized my knuckle had slipped half way down my hand because the hand was casted.  After that, I needed surgery in which they had to put a plate in my hand and re-break the bone.  Since then I have lost 40 of those pounds.  I now weigh in at 145 pounds but I would like to be 130 pounds.  Recently, I started back into weightlifting and running after having a lung infection.  The antibiotics used to treat the infection caused a rupture in a tendon in my foot, so that put me out of commission for a while.  Now I am back to exercising while trying to manage my arthritis.  My ultimate goal is to run a marathon if my knees will let me.  Running, weightlifting, swimming, hockey, hiking, biking, elliptical, snowboarding, and kayaking are my main exercise interests and what I intend to focus on for the exercise portion of this blog.  

Tea is a great passion of mine.  I am the owner of the tea company Butiki Teas (www.butikiteas.com).  I sell only vegan teas and do not use artificial flavorings.  Many of the flavored teas are my own creation and all of the teas are high quality.  Ever since I was young, I loved sipping tea while talking with friends and family.  It wasn’t until college that it became a passion.  I was so focused on my studies that I didn’t have much time to relax so I started enjoying tea breaks as a way to reduce my stress.  In this blog I will mostly focus on reviewing books, dvds, tea recipes, and introducing new teas.