Monica went to the beach and she saw....

I went to the beach this past weekend for lunch with my sister and ended up taking some pictures (click on them to see them bigger). This is what I saw:

A neat bird. I was walking along the beach with my sister, and we were approaching the end of the beach, and there were some men standing on those rocks you see in the background looking onto the beach (which is obviously private, this being a Middle Eastern country and all) I went to tell her that we shouldn't be walking towards these men but it came out like this; "Sarah, do you realize we're walking towards-a pelican!" Ok ok it's not a pelican, but it's a cool looking bird. In this picture it also looks like a dinosaur.

A crab hiding from me. This beach is FULL of crabs, it's crazy, but they're skittish little buggers. I was lucky to even get this picture.




Some barnacles close up:

(That is what they are, yeah?)

And some far away:


I like how in this picture one rock has absolutely none on top of it. It's strange, right?


And, apparently I like to take pictures of shells lodged in the sand:

I promise I'll learn to write for my next post and maybe even cook. I swear I can do more than take mediocore pictures. So let's hope my one reader in Texas (props to you for being vegan btw) doesn't give up on this blog lol. So yeah, I'll try harder!

Photo extravaganza!!

I know it's been forever since I posted (but what does it matter, not like I have any readers..). Work's been tough, I started a drama club at my school so that's been taking up some time. I also had an exam a couple days ago that I was busy studying for.. I haven't been up to much these days. Been doing some cooking here and there (made some chocolate chips cookies for a friend's party a week or so ago and everyone was shocked that they were vegan so that was fun) but nothing special.
I've got lots of pictures to share with y'all today:

Me and my sister on Halloween: She's a mouse and I'm a cat in case you can't tell... We threw these "costumes" together in a couple minutes and went on to have a delightfully dull Halloween..

Here are my friends, rapping up a storm... this was their first performance and they were great. I've been saying they should get a myspace or something, but there's nothing like that up yet... as soon as you can get their music online I'll definately link it here...


I made some soup the other day, this is simple; canned tomatoes, red and white lentils, brown rice, onions, celery, spinach, potatoes, and some frozen veggies (corn, green beans, peas, carrots) and some spices... Not bad considering we have no food in the house...

Here's my sister again, she's wearing gucci sunglasses. Yeah, that's pretty much the point of this picture. (no, they aren't hers lol)

So yeah, this is what I've been up to the past while... I have some beach pictures I want to share, but I'll do that in another post, this one has enough pictures I think...

OH almost forgot about this one; this happened right in front on my house on the worst day I've ever had ever, which also happened to be the day I left for Jordan (did I mention I went to Jordan? I don't have the pictures yet so I haven't posted about it) Anyways I guess this guy was having a bad day as well:

It's a nice Mustang too... people here should learn to drive..

I don't like bugs.

I was making a sort of black bean salsa the other day and grabbed a green pepper out of my fridge. When I cut it open it was the grossest thing I've seen in awhile; the inside was covered in brown stuff and half the seeds were gone. Then I took an even closer look, and screamed; there was a full grown caterpillar inside my green pepper. Ew ew ew... I have no idea how it got there since the pepper had no holes in it, but judging from the amount of caterpillar poo in the vegetable, it had probably hatched and grown up there.

Of course, I don't kill bugs (I'm vegan, yo) so I just put the little veggie house on the ground outside. If the caterpillar lives, whatev and if he gets eaten by a bird or something then it's natural.

I wonder if other vegans would agree with this? What do y'all think about killing bugs? I don't agree with it (how could I refuse to eat honey or wear silk but walk around squishing bugs, right?)

But I hate bugs.

Especially ants. We have an ant problem in our house (and this entire city I think). It's pretty bad, I can't leave food out for literally five minutes without it becoming covered in ants. Sometimes I have to brush off a table before I can use it because it's covered in ants. It's gross. But I don't kill them, and I don't let my family use poison in the house (mainly because I'm worried about it hurting my cat, and also because the ants will just come back anyways)


Ants are small so you can't tell how gross they are. So here's a close up picture I took in my kitchen the other day...


(click on it to see more detail... if you dare)

Look at those crazy Middle Eastern ants.

I'm creeping myself out here. And I've just realized that writing a post about bugs right before I have a nap isn't the best idea. I bet I'll imagine bugs crawling on me as I try to sleep. Or actually will have bugs on me, it's pretty likely judging from this post.

ew ew ew

A quick meal and a bit about Ramadan

So here's my meal... I tried Linda McCartney sausages for the first time today, and I was pretty impressed. They had a great texture and taste, but were very salty. I'm scared to see how much sodium I just ate... So just had those with some mashed potatoes (with soy milk, a bit of vegan margarine, and some parsley and garlic powder) and a bunch of plain steamed green beans.
Mmmm....

So this is just something quick and easy. I thought I had a bad cold, but it's been almost a week now, so I'm guessing it's a flu. So, anyways I haven't been cooking much, some veggie stew (and whole wheat dumplings of course) the other day, but it's mostly just peanut butter on toast and fresh fruit.

So, aside from food... what's been going on? Well it's Ramadan now. While I'm not Muslim, Ramadan has a huge effect on life when you're living in an Islamic country.
(What's Ramadan? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan)

Besides not being allowed to eat or drink in public during the day, Ramadan is certainly felt at my school as well. We've had more absences since it started, and some children have been a bit worse-behaved. I guess it's because the parents are allowing their kids to stay up until all hours with the rest of the family...

"Most practicing Muslims, especially children and the elderly, have a light meal or snack before dawn. This light meal is called Suhoor or Sohoor or Sehri, and is considered an act of Sunnah. This tradition is practised by Muslims worldwide. Cafes and restaurants, in Muslim countries, stay open till early morning hours in Ramadan to serve food and drink for Suhoor."
-from the Wikipedia article

(I guess it's easier to fast all day if you stay up all night...)

But I can handle the tired children because of Ramadan working hours! Normally I'd start work at 7:30 (technically, but I would actually get in by 7 everyday) and finish at 2. Ramadan hours are 8:30 (but I'm getting to school at 7:45) till 1:30...

So I have quite a bit more to write about but things just aren't flowing tonight and I'm sleepy, so tomorrow or sometime this weekend I'll finish this up.

I got myself a camera (and I'm nervous about truffles)

I finally got myself a camera (8.1 MP sony cyber-shot) and it's gorgeous and why else would I need a camera other than to blog with?
So let's excuse my absence and get started.
I went to Dubai twice over the past weekend and along with some standard can't-buy-it-here foods (whole wheat pastas, vegan margarine, Amy's kitchen foods, organic english muffins, etc..) I came across this Italian food cart thing. It was near the end of my second day of shopping, which was a relief since otherwise I would've spent all my money.
This is what I did end up getting:

There's some Bruschetta with Truffle, and salt with truffle. Each are 6% black truffle. I'm so excited about these but also nervous. I don't think I've ever had truffle before. What if I don't like it? Or what if this is just bad but truffle is good but I never try them again cause this scares me from them? So it might be some time before you actually see these products being put to use, but I can tell you for sure I'll be looking at them lovingly in my cuboard everyday.

UPDATE Wait a second! Are truffles vegan? People suck and they need to use dogs or pigs to hunt these fungi down. So what does that make truffles? This reminds me of the Steven the Vegan video "If a monkey made you a sandwich would you eat it?"

So what do you think? Truffles; vegan or not?

And here's the house...

I wasn't kidding when I said it looked like something made from a Barbie lego set. I still haven't even seen it, just a few pictures, and apparently it's very nice and we're moving probably within a week. I hate packing, bleck.
Anyways, I don't really have anything to say, just wanted to post this picture.

*cough*cough*

My cold is pretty much over, aside from a lingering cough. And I think that's not so much a cold, it's more my body rediscovering my asthma. Which sucks. I went for years using my inhalor only every few months, and now I'm using it every day. Geez. Let's hope I get over this soon.

In terms of food, I've been thinking about soy a lot these days. Soy is such a debated topic, and I tend not to believe most of the apparent problems. Basically, I think you should go for everything in moderation, and obviously not feed soy to young children as it's a common allergin. But I'm not sure how moderate I've been with it lately, is all. I started using my soy protien powder in shakes (with frozen strawberries, bananas, soymilk and a pinch of vanillin) and I've basically been living off leftover lasagna the past couple days (made with homemade tomato veggie sauce and textured soy protien, with spinach instead of cheese, since soy cheese is nonexistant here), cereal with soy milk, even my Boca products are soy-based. So yeah... I need to vary my protien sources again, I go through phases, and I should start with my beans and lentils again. I actually found a bean recipe I like, which is awesome since I hate beans, so hopefully I'll make that and have it with some rice tonight.

Another hot topic these days? People being designed, or however you want to word it, to eat meat. I don't understand why people are so proud of their canines, using them as evidence of our bloody destiny. I was reading about this and of course I went straight to a mirror to check out my teeth. And guess what? I think I'm a natural vegan because my canines are basically flat! Yep, there's no way I could tear into a raw cow with those pathetic little things. Either everyone else is like this, or I'm evolved. I hope I'm evolved, that would be cool.

Oh oh oh! I almost forgot! I took my English exam yesterday and I'm pretty sure I aced it. Well, maybe not aced, but I'm pretty sure I passed. And that's good enough cause it's only worth 30% of my final grade, and my grade going into the exam was something like 96% so as long as I pass the exam, I'm safe.

I've been hiccupping pretty much the whole time I've been writing this, gosh it's annoying. I'm going to go hold my breath for awhile, and then do some math.

Tissues and tea...

I'm sick :(
Like, making myself a nest on the couch surrounded by blankets, tissues, and dirty dishes that I can't be bothered to bring to the kitchen kinda sick. Yuck. This is the first bad cold I've had in almost six months, and it's annoying.
On the bright side, nobody has tried to blame it on my being a vegan, which is a nice surprise. I was sure my mom would go into a rant about how if I ate healthy I wouldn't be sick, but I guess she's realized that I am eating healthy now. Sweet.
On that note, time for some instant soup lol.

playing with flax and nutritional yeast :)

I wanted to wait until I'd finished my schoolwork to post this, and then realized my cookies were disappearing too fast and it was now or wait until the next time I make these. Which, believe me, will be very soon.

I got my foods from Canada yesterday; soy protein powder (like the bodybuilders use, hellz yeah lol), nutritional yeast, and flax seeds. I was hanging out in the kitchen and decided to taste the flax seeds. Just plain.
I decided I liked them, they tasted a bit like wheat germ and would taste good with oatmeal, and oatmeal tastes best in cookies! So making oatmeal-flax cookies became my second mission of the day.
Those are the four I managed to round up (I ate one right after I took this picture too)

I used the quick oatmeal cookie recipe from The Joy of Cooking (that cookbook is nowhere near vegan, but I still adore it) I just replaced the eggs with banana and baking powder and obviously soymilk for the milk. Then I just dumped in the flaxseeds. The banana added a touch of extra flavour that was really good, and worked perfectly as as egg replacement.

I had a couple of friends over at the time, and these cookies were being eaten as fast as they came out of the oven. I made about five cookie sheets full, and when I pulled the last ones out of the oven, there were maybe three left from the first four sheets.

My other cooking adventure yesterday: nutritional yeast sauce!

I used:
1/2 c soymilk
1/4 c nutritional yeast
some olive oil.. about 1/4 tsp I'd guess
quite a bit of garlic powder and pepper

I just heated the stuff and when it came to boil, I added a cornstarch and cold water mixture to thicken it a bit.

Then I ate it the best way you can eat anything; out of a huge mixing bowl with my friend, each of us with our own spoon, and other people wandering in and taking some too.

This was a hit with everyone too, especially since I made it before the cookies. It made about four cups of cooked pasta, and there was only a small bowl of leftovers for lunch today.

I love feeding people, it's an instict I have I think... it just makes me happy. And it makes me even happier to fill up someone's stomach with healthy(ish) cruelty-free food, replacing whatever omni meal they would've eaten instead. One less serving of meat for at least three people every couple days... it's gotta add up, right?

Warning: bit of a vegan rant...

Jennifer Lopez. Yuck.
I'm sure everyone knows why she's the enemy of vegans everywhere. Not only vegans, but normal people who care about animals in any way. She's worn basically every type of dead animal there is, fox, mink, even chinchilla! I knew somebody who kept chinchillas as pets, they're adorable. And she wears them.
I don't support her in any way, I won't buy her products, and when my sister went perfume shopping a little while ago, I didn't even let her smell the JLo stuff.

And that is why I smiled when I saw how she looked at the Oscars. She is definately not attractive at all here, her hair's slicked back, her face is cakey and grossy tanned, and she is wearing a puke-green dress! Bad things happen to bad people, and Jennifer, you are a bad person.
Check out: http://www.jlodown.com



Jennifer could learn something from this year's Best Actress winner, Reese Witherspoon.
Reese is gorgeous, talented and vegetarian. Just look at her:

I promise I'll try not to go on these vegan rantings too often, but I couldn't help it here.

Things to do...

I've been up to my ears in schoolwork lately (and still am actually, so I shouldn't even be writing this) so I haven't been as productive as I should be. So here's a list of what I'm planning to do as soon as ancient history gets off my back:
-Stock up my freezer even more. I think I have some squirrel genes in me somewhere because I feel so secure having a freezer full of food. Right now it's full of homemade yummies like soup, fries, pasta and rice (with sauce mixed in) and some individual sauce portions as well. Also, I finally found some vegan food so my freezer has some Boca burgers and chick'n patties (after not even having tofu for six months, I was so happy to see a store here stock these products for the first time). Oh, and I've got some frozen corn, spinach, and beans... But it's not enough for Squirrely Monica, no way. So next up I want some treats (banana ice cream maybe? And sliced frozen bananas rolled in oats and drizzled with chocolate... mmmm...), I bought a loaf of brown bread to french toast and freeze, also I want to make some pizza pockets and veggie fried rice. I hope my freezer will be big enough. Oh!! And I'm getting a bunch of veg foods from Canada in a couple days, so I'll be experimenting with nutritional yeast and fun things like that. I'm craving mac 'n cheese, let's see if this nutritional yeast is as good as everyone says...
Oh, anyone have any ideas of what to do with my huge container of black beans? I'm thinking of throwing together a soup, or maybe chilli... but if you can think of something better, let me know? Thanks :)

-Clean my room! When my room is clean, it's awesome, I love it:

Unfortunately it is looking nothing like this these days. In fact, to be completely honest, I think I've managed to get sand in my bed. I know I live in the desert, but really, that's not much of an excuse. I mean, I didn't end up with pinecones in my bed back in Canada. I really need to work on this.

-Paint a picture. I haven't done that in forever, and as you can see from the above picture, I have an easel with a blank canvas set up. Having that sitting there makes me feel like a poser, so I really need to paint something soon. I also need new brushes, but I can work with what I have, so I should.

-Meditate! I shouldn't have to make time for this, it should be routine... It was for awhile too, brush my teeth, wash my face, meditate, go to sleep. And while I was doing that, I felt so at peace with myself and other people (even those who I thought I would never be able to forgive or be friends with again), I was generally happier, I slept better than ever, and even felt fully rested on four hours of sleep (not that I do that very often). I don't understand why I stopped. It would be like my stopping my veganism now that I've seen all the postive effects... stupid and pointless. I think I'll start that again tonight, hopefully.

...I think that's all, but I feel like I'm missing something.

-Oh yeah! I need to get my butt back to the gym now that I'm eating properly and my body can handle it.

So there's my plan, but I've got quite a bit of work to do first. So yeah, don't hold your breath...

SUCESS!!!

I just made The Best Fries Ever. Yes, they deserve capitalization. They are THAT GOOD and healthier (not healthy, but better) than most others. Especially compared to most sold here (restaurants or frozen in bags) as most here are fried in palm oil, which is so unhealthy. These fries are the best I've had since I had to give up McDonalds last summer (when I couldn't trick myself about their use of beef oils anymore lol) Especially good after my failure with home fries.

These are so easy to make too:
peel and slice potatoes into fry shapes (I used a HUGE potato and a small one)
parboil potatoes until almost cooked, still firm
put them on a pan and brush oil over them (I used canola oil mixed with garlic powder)
bake at a high temperature until golden (flip when they start to crisp)

Mmmmmm fries :)

And in non-food news, because, yes, I DO have a life beyond food, schoolwork is going ok. I checked online and my first math unit has been received. I just have to wait for them to mail it back to know what my mark was (wish me luck!!). I finished all my English units with marks of 85, 97, 100, and 100 and great comments from my teachers, so I'm just waiting to write the exam. I dropped my accounting course (yesss!). And I'm almost finished my first unit of history, writing this is my last bit of procrastination.

I just looked out the window...

...and noticed how... BLUE the ocean was today. So I thought I'd share:

I think we're getting our nice weather back. Phew...

One day I'll make some pretty food...

I don't like plain bananas. It's a texture thing with me, I think. But I've been experimenting with them in other ways the past couple days. Chopping them, covering them in dry-fried oats and some melted dark chocolate and freezing them is delicious. And of course banana bread/muffins/cake is great (and the recipe is usually egg-free to start, bananas and baking powder are egg-replacements)
But this smoothie...man, I'm addicted. We finally got a blender the other day (you know how things are put off, even months after moving?) and I wanted to use it right away. We didn't have berries or anything at the time. Only bananas. So I blended together some ice cubes, soymilk, bananas and vanillin. Sooo good. It turns out totally frothy, and stays that way, unlike cows milk, which would bubble but stay liquid at the bottom. Great way to get some protien into me in the mornings. But, of course it's ugly. Soy milk doesn't have the nicest colour, and neither do mushed up bananas. I don't know how I'll convert anyone if all my yummy food looks so gross lol

In other news, I found this chart today here

I edited it to remove the sections for eggs and dairy. I always talked about getting all my amino acids, but never knew what they actually were. Well, I knew for about two weeks at one point last year in Food and Nutrition class, but forgot after the test. So this is useful. Especially to remind me that corn is actually a grain, not a vegetable.

It's ugly, but goooood

I was cleaning-ish my kitchen today and came across green onions in my fridge... "Hmmm, green onions?" I thought. "I bought those for a reason... but why?" And then I remembered! General Tao's Tofu Sauce! I got the recipe from VegWeb.com see recipe here
Before starting on the sauce, I'd started some lentil rice thingie with:
1 c rice
1/2 split white lentils
1 chopped tomato
about a teaspoon mixed spices (oregano, basil, sage, etc)
3 1/4 c water
Cook it like you would rice (bring to a boil, turn down heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes, until cooked)
The rice and lentils make a complete protein....

So, anyways, I made the sauce (doubled the recipe cause I love it) putting more cornstarch in to make it thicker because last time it was really watery.
And it turned out UGLY! But it tastes so good. There it is on the lentil rice:

And there's the leftover sauce. Ugly, eh? But it spices up anything, rice, vegetables, lentils, tofu, etc...

Up before noon, wow!

I started my "plan" today. Finally. I got out of bed before noon for the first time in over two weeks, and started the day off right with a pb&j toasted sandwich (on cute little brown bread) After that, I had a walk. It's been FREEZING lately! Well, freezing for this country, at least. Last night I wore track pants underneath my pj bottoms, a tank top and two baggy t-shirts overtop, and two pairs of socks! Of course, I wasn't that bundled up for my walk, but I came close. I kept both pairs of socks on, put my "yoga pants" (leggings, basically) on under my jeans, and wore a jacket over my sweater over my long-sleeved shirt. See the picture? PUDDLES!!! Not too common here.

I'm glad nobody's visting us now, because they'd think we totally lied about the weather. I've been told that in a couple days this rainy-ness will clear up and I'll experience my first Middle Eastern summer.

In more important news... My food situation for today: not so great thus far. I made fried potatoes after my walk, and they were not delicious, as evidence shows:

I DIDN'T EVEN FINISH THEM!! If you know me, you know I love my carbs, especially potatoes and will almost always finish them. Got a plate of lukewarm mediocore french fries you don't want? I'll eat them!! So the fact that I didn't finish these is significant. The spices were weird, I think it's cause I prepared and mixed them with the potatoes the night before, and added some green onions. And I thought I was being so efficent last night. Oh well...

For lunch today I'm going to have soup... I really want instant crap, but I know I should eat some of my frozen homemade lentil-vegetable soup. With the lentils and whole-wheat noodles, it's a complete protien for my vegan self, and it's yummy but sometimes freeze-dried sodium just calls to you.