jenojoon

Feb 07 2012

drinks, food, in the kitchen, raw food, vegan food

Budget Juicing!

One of the things that keeps me from juicing on a daily or at least several times a week basis is the cost. It takes sooo much produce to make juice and quality, organic produce ain’t cheap. (the other thing that keeps me from juicing all the time is the mess…) Anyway…

I went to the 99 cent store on my lunch break recently because I remembered they have lots of produce now and I wanted to check it out. (I can also get local french bread, soy milk, and other goodies there)

I was so excited to find some good stuff! First off I got two big bunches of very ripe bananas. I won’t be juicing these. I’ll be freezing them in halves and using them in smoothies and raw banana soft serve! I can’t wait to have a freezer full of bananas!

And then I found local celery and carrots. And ORGANIC BLUEBERRIES!!!! Beautiful organic blueberries! I got three pints, but there’s only two in the picture because I inhaled one of the pints at my desk after I bought them… And then there were cucumbers. And these were actually two for 99 cents! Now, they aren’t organic, but I will peel them before I juice them and they will be almost as good as the organic cucumbers I pay $3 a piece for normally.

Check out this beautiful bounty that only cost me $12.00!

Feb 06 2012

4 Comments

product review, veganism

Hurraw! Black Cherry Lip Balm

A week or so ago I put the call out on Twitter asking for recommendations for a vegan lip gloss/balm similar to Clinique’s Black Honey. Basically I wanted something with a deep but sheer berry tint that I could apply without a mirror.

One of my friends suggested the Hurraw! Black Cherry lip balm. I’d heard really good things about Hurraw!. And I loved that their name actually had an exclamation point in it. (I love exclamation points!) Then all kinds of people started chiming in on Twitter to sing the praises of Hurraw! balms. About how awesome they are and moisturizing, smell great, taste great. And of course they are organic, vegan, and raw. What more could you really ask for? Oh- and they are pretty cheap too! Less than $4 a tube! With reasonable shipping rates.

I also checked the reviews on Makeup Alley. Again- glowing reviews by almost everyone.

So I ordered a tube of the Black Cherry. On the Hurraw! site you have to order a minimum of three tubes. Since I wanted to try it out before committing to three, I ordered from a distributor via Amazon. I got my tube in one week. I ripped open the envelope and immediately swiped the oval shaped tube across my lips. Love at first swipe! It is super smooth and feels wonderful on the lips. It has a nice cherry scent- reminiscent of childhood Lip Smackers but less fake smelling. And the color is perfect. Exactly what I wanted- deep but sheer berry tinted. A little more red than the berry of Black Honey, but still great.

I will definitely be ordering these by the threes from the Hurraw! site from now on!

this is me with Hurraw! Black Cherry lips ;)

Feb 05 2012

5 Comments

books, food, in the kitchen, vegan food

Pancakes and Chocolate Mousse!

I started the morning with a perfect batch of “Perfect Pancakes” from Vegan Brunch. These are truly perfect. They are fluffy and classic tasting. I make them a lot, but today was the most perfect they’ve ever been. I halved the recipe so I don’t know if this had anything to do with it. All I know is they hit the spot this morning drizzled with agave syrup and served with some pumpkin spice coffee.

And while I enjoyed the pancake breakfast, I read the weekend’s section of Vegan’s Daily Companion. The recipe was for chocolate mousse. A very simple recipe that I happened to have all the ingredients for. I whipped it up later in the evening. I had a hard time getting the melted chocolate to incorporate completely into the mousse. I used my food processor and I think it might have been smoother if I’d made it in the Blendtec. But it still tasted delicious. It is very rich and the half cup serving size is plenty! The recipe makes six servings.

Feb 03 2012

3 Comments

food, in the kitchen, Let's Eat!, nachos, raw food, vegan food

Let’s Eat: Raw Nachos!

These raw nachos were three days in the making! But they were totally worth it! I was inspired by my friend Ty over at Camera Phone Vegan. She’s been eating high raw lately and we both love nachos. So when she made raw vegan nachos with a cashew queso sauce, I HAD to try it!

I started out by making juice pulp crackers a couple days ago. I always save the pulp when I juice veggies in a bag in the freezer. I’ve tried a few recipes but the one I used this time is by far my favorite. I used this recipe and the only thing I changed was that I used a half teaspoon of granulated garlic instead of fresh garlic, and I made them in my dehydrator instead of in the oven. I dehydrated them for about 12 hours at 115 degrees F- flipping once after a few hours. They looked like this when I took them out:

I cut the crackers into wedges and then broke them in half for the ‘chips’ in my nachos. When I was ready to make the nachos I arranged them on a plate and topped with chopped romaine and red bell pepper.

Then I made the queso sauce! Holy Moly! This stuff is awesome. I kept eating it out of the blender with a spoon. I used Ty’s recipe found here. The only things I did different were to use a red bell pepper instead of yellow, I added a clove of garlic, and I added a 1/4 teaspoon cumin. I liberally drizzled the sauce over my nachos and it was beautiful!

look at that sauce!

I thoroughly enjoyed these raw nachos and I plan to make them again and again! I have leftover sauce that I think I’ll use as a dip for veggies or a salad dressing later this week. YUM!

Feb 02 2012

4 Comments

food, Let's Eat!, vegan food, veganism

Whole Food Eating Day 2

I was planning to post about the raw nachos today, but yesterday afternoon didn’t turn out as planned and so raw nachos will be had tonight! (or someone is getting hurt!) We ended up going out to dinner last night and I had a big salad with beans and guacamole but I forgot to ask for the fritos to be left off (ok- I didn’t forget), but other than a handful of fritos the ‘taco’ salad was right in line with my plan.

Today I started out with more green juice and then a small cup of coffee. Since I didn’t prep anything last night and had to drive David to work this morning (the car is in the shop with a recall issue…), I didn’t make a fruit salad. I just grabbed an orange and a banana to eat at my desk. This wasn’t really enough food for the morning but I survived. I need to get in the habit of planning better so that convenience food doesn’t rule my life.

I sipped matcha green tea (my latest tea obsession) throughout the morning and waited (impatiently) until noon for my lunch.

I had more of the lentil pistachio salad and green beans that I had yesterday and I also added a mixed green salad with chili beans on top. I just grabbed the salad package and the beans on my way out the door and threw it together at lunchtime. It was was beautiful but it needed more flavor. I should have made a nice oil-free dressing. I ate a little bit of it but I just wasn’t feeling it so luckily I remembered that I had more green juice in the fridge at work. When I got home I had a small romaine and banana smoothie to tide me over until dinner was ready.

One of my goals for eating better is that I hope to wake up refreshed in the mornings. Currently I have to drag myself out of bed every day and I feel like if I didn’t have to go to work I would sleep until 10am. And I go to bed at 10pm! I know people have different sleep needs, but I’m not sure I should ‘need’ 12 hours of sleep on a regular basis.

Here’s to another day of whole food eating!