New Place Part II

This weekend, I installed little magnets to hold some cabinets closed. I attempted to do this with a manual screwdriver, but quickly became frustrated. I talked to a close guy friend about power drills and decided to buy a Black & Decker 12V electric drill. I got those pesky little magnets installed, so now the cats can't open the cabinets! Success!

Speaking of the new place, I wanted to show how I like to organize things around the house. Maybe it will offer some ideas to people looking to reorganize their space.


Spice cabinet


Kitchen appliances


Knife block!


Cookbooks & weights


Spoon rest



In the spice cabinet photo, you can see a sheet of white paper taped inside the cabinet. That is a list of all my spices in alphabetical order, as well as a list of liquids divided by storage location (another cabinet or the fridge). Yes, OCD. The kitchen appliance shelf saves so much cabinet space by keeping items that are not used daily outside the kitchen. I used to store my mixing bowls on top of the waffle maker, but I now keep both sets of mixing bowls on the countertop. When I was looking at knives, I knew I had to have a knife block to keep them organized and to prevent myself from knicking a finger while fumbling in a drawer. I went with Wusthof Classic knives, buying a boxed set and adding a tomato knife. I love these knives. I have another small shelf that I set near the sliding glass doors. This shelf has cookbooks on the top two shelves and free weights on the bottom two shelves. I have 5, 10, and 20 lb dumbbells, a jump rope, weightlifting gloves, and The Body Sculpting Bible for Women stored here. I set my yoga mat against the shelf and my workout ball is tucked in the corner. The last picture is my adorable new spoon rest, which says, "Live life passionately. Laugh out loud. Love unconditionally." :)

For your moment of zen, here are some cranes walking behind my new place. They started squawking after they crossed the street though. I never knew they could be so loud!

Sweet Freedom

I am finally free! The last six months or so were unpleasant, mostly due to my roommate's sour mood, filthy living conditions, and unusual sleep/wake cycle. I can say that I am elated, excited, and thankful to be living alone again. I finally finished unpacking last night! I found a lovely 2 bed, 2 bath townhouse in a gated golf community. What really pushed me over the edge into picking this place was the screened balcony. It overlooks three holes of the golf course and a man-made lake. :)


Looking into the living room - love the hardwood floors!


Looking into the kitchen - the hallway leads to the laundry room, second bathroom, linen closet, and office.


Kitchen - was expecting new cabinets, but clearly that didn't happen.


Pantry - maximizing space in my little kitchen.


Office - using the closet in here to store jackets and rarely used items.


Master bedroom - yes, the wall is a mirror, because each room has a mirror wall. :)


Master bathroom - new tile and glass door on the shower.


Master closet - so organized. ;)


Is it football season yet?

Photo Heavy Weekend

This weekend was incredible. :)

On Saturday, I woke up early to ride with Cristin and Jess to a juice bar and farmers' market in Hollywood, FL.



Sadly, it wasn't open, so we consoled ourselves with a walk along the beach.



Then, we decided to check out the essentially abandoned mall along the boardwalk. Super creepy.



We drove up to Boca for trapeze lessons at Trapeze Experience using a coupon we bought on LivingSocial. The instructor has 30 years experience in the circus! During the warm-ups, he told me that I was athletic and in great shape. Thanks!









After our lesson, we stopped in Delray Beach for lunch at Vic and Angelo's. I ordered a panini with vegetables marinated in agro dolce (vinegar and sugar), but requested to have the gorgonzola cheese excluded.



On Sunday, we went to Carlin Park to celebrate my friend's birthday, as well as honor those who have served in the military. There were several members of the armed service in attendance, so it was a successful party. There was a lot of hype about early morning mimosa pong, but alas, they resorted to afternoon beer pong instead.



On Monday, I went to another BBQ at Carlin Park with some people from work.



Here is how I decided to do vegan BBQ this weekend - chick'n sandwiches (seitan cutlet recipe from American Vegan Kitchen) with BBQ sauce, red potatoes tossed in olive oil and Tony's, a Greek-style salad, black bean and corn summer salad (similar to this recipe), and oatmeal raisin cookies and brownies for dessert (not pictured). The best part of the second BBQ was all the laughter and being told that my vegan desserts made someone reconsider what he thought vegan food was. That made my day. :)




Side note: There is a contest on Vegan Heartland that I would love to win. (Contest here) It's for coupons and free goodies! I didn't win the last time, so maybe this time I will have better luck! :)

Feels Like Summertime!

With the upcoming holiday weekend marking the unofficial beginning of summer, I've been craving some typical summer foods - BBQ and sundaes!

I used the TofuXpress to press my tofu today while I was at work. I sliced it in half to make two sheets and then cut it into triangles. I dipped it into some soymilk and rolled it in some panko breadcrumbs. After baking the tofu (400F for 30 mins), I smothered it in this BBQ sauce from VeganDad. The directions say to strain out the onion, but I nibbled on the little onion bits as taste test bites and they were quite good. If you can incorporate them into your dish or something else, go for it. :) For the macaroni and cheese, I had a bag of Daiya that I had no idea what to do with, so I melted it down with some soymilk and Earth Balance to make a cheese sauce. Not the healthiest way to make macaroni and cheese, but I am trying to use as much food as possible from my pantry before my move next week.





For dessert, I made a little ice cream sundae using Tofutti vanilla ice cream, a banana, some strawberries (since I hate maraschino cherries), and Hershey's syrup (yes, it's vegan!). Yum!





After working the last 5 or 6 weekends in a row, I'm really looking forward to this weekend! I've got a fun activity planned for each day, so I'm going to really enjoy the time off work. :)

Sneaky Pancakes

I like to think these are sneaky pancakes because they have beans in them instead of egg replacer powder or oil. The recipe (here) is from Melomeals: Vegan for $3.33 a Day. The site is pretty interesting because she budgets hardcore and has some food intolerances. I have been reading the blog for a while, but never made any of the recipes. Bianca recently reviewed these pancakes on VeganCrunk (here) and I figured I'd give them a try since I love brinner. I should note that I used finely ground flax instead of psyllium husk and real sugar instead of stevia. I made a tofu scramble to go with the pancakes. My tofu scramble included a red onion, an orange bell pepper, a tomato, a bunch of green onions, and lots of garlic. I used tumeric (for color), cumin, chipotle chili powder, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper for seasoning. Quite tasty, if I may say so myself. :) I took the picture while my pure maple syrup was warming up in the microwave.

Childhood Favorites

This past week, I had a grilled cheese and chick'n tenders. The grilled cheese was made using Earth Balance non-hydrogenated margarine and Galaxy Foods' Vegan soy cheese slices (wanted Rice Vegan slices but couldn't find them). The chick'n tenders were by Gardein. My camera battery was dead, so I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of the meal. I also had mixed vegetables to add something healthy to the meal.

Yesterday, I made "Sloppy Joannas" using the leftover TVP from the meatloaf (here). The recipe is from Yellow Rose Recipes, hence the use of the name Joanna (the author) instead of Joe. A very similar recipe is in Vegan Diner, so I'll make that sometime in the future with the last of the TVP. In the Sloppy Joannas, I did not have mustard (the powdered spice). I did add a yellow bell pepper, because the recipe says a green bell pepper can be added. I served the Sloppy Joannas with spinach (sauteed with garlic and sprinkled with red pepper flakes) and sweet potato fries.

Food Safety

This a topic that can sometimes be overlooked, but it's super important.

WASH EVERYTHING!

I know it's easy to not think about bacteria in your food. We tend to associate bacteria with uncooked meats, like salmonella with chicken for example. However, after the salmonella outbreak in peanut butter and bagged spinach a few years ago, we have to remember to wash everything. I know the bag of pre-cut salad says "triple washed," but it should be washed again at your house. Thanks to my lovely OCD tendencies, I wash everything already, but I am sure plenty of people just accept that the pre-wash was good enough.

If you don't wash your salad, check out what could be lurking in there. On SoupBelly.com, the author found a dead fly in her bag of salad. Gross!