Unplugged

Hi everyone! I know it's been a little quiet around here lately...I've had a lot going on and just needed to unplug for a couple of days.
A break from the Internet + this awesome treadmill interval workout = me back on track!

After this run, I did a short weight circuit then some free-weights. It felt good to get back into the gym- this past week I haven't been going as often as I'd like to. 

I walked home and cut through the library on the way...

I ended up checking out 3 books: Sophie Kinsella's Mini Shopaholic (one of my favorite authors, and I love the Shopaholic series!), Vandana Shiva's Staying Alive, and Madhur Jaffrey's At Home with Madhur Jaffrey, which is an amazing cookbook. I've already flipped through it and the recipes look amazing. Her photography is out of this world, too!

What's on your bookshelf right now?


In other news, I have been applying for Internships and Graduate Assistant positions for the past few weeks-hence recent busy-ness! I had my first interview yesterday, too...can't wait to hear back from them!
 I've also been trying to put together a few professional looks with what I have in my wardrobe. This is what I wore to a recent mock therapy session at school:

I think it would be suitable for the workplace too.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the pants are actually yoga pants! They are awesome because they can be dressed up or down depending on the top and shoes. 

I also love the short sleeved blazer- it's Rampage and it goes with just about any black pants or skirt. Looks like I need to clean my mirror...

What do you think of this look? 

Finally, so I don't leave you without a foodie pic: 

Homemade guacamole! This was just a mashed avocado mixed with diced white onion, diced tomato, and seasoned with sea salt. I also squeezed half a lime over the top to prevent oxidization. Yum!

Right now I'm going to go relax with some of my new books... What do you do when you need to unplug?

Vegan Dal Makhani and Q&A

Helloooo!

What's up bloggies?! The same stuff as usual has been going on here- busy with school and not much else!

Please tell me you have more interesting things going on than me :)

Yesterday inspiration struck me...in the form of an empty box that was destined for the trash...

Raine had eaten this last week and it looked and smelled delicious. I looked at the ingredients and thought, I could totally do this!

Of course...I did my usual Sonia-esque modifications.

I pretty much just veganized it- and, I'm not sure how much black gram varies from lentils, but I used lentils.

Vegan Dal Makhani

cooked lentils (however much 3/4 cup dry lentils makes!)

1/2 can kidney beans, rinsed well and drained

1 cup coconut milk (I used Silk brand- it's new!)

water (if needed)

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/3 cup tomato puree 

1/4 cup minced onion

2 tsp garam masala

2 tsp ginger-garlic paste

1/4 tsp Indian chili powder (omit if you don't want too much spice)

1/4 tsp turmeric

salt as needed

2 tsp oil

Combine lentils, kidney beans, coconut milk, and both tomato ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil then drop it to a simmer. If it seems too thick, add a bit of water.

In a separate skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent. Add the ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, and turmeric and mix well. Add this spice mixture to the simmering dal. Add salt to taste. 

This was pretty much spot-on to a restaurant version, just a little less creamy. I'm so glad Silk makes coconut milk now. It's a lot lower in fat than the canned milks, which I like, but it has the same taste. 

I enjoyed a bowl right away with some pita chips.

Later, I enjoyed it again...

 I heated it up with some spinach and it was even better. On the side I made some Bajri flatbread, also known in India as Bhakri. Bajri flour (pictured in the background) is pearl millet, which is a type of millet that comes from Africa and India. The flour is light grey and has a really great flavor. I made 2 little round skillet-breads with:
1/4 cup bajri flour
pinch of salt
hot water (as hot as the tap gets) as needed
Put the flour and salt in a bowl and make a little well in it. Add hot water by the tablespoon (or less) mixing as you go. You should get a soft dough than you can shape into a ball. Divide this ball into two and flatten each one between your palms. This is a very crude method of making these...but since the flour has no gluten, it's really hard to use a rolling pin or anything else. The dough should be a slight bit thicker than a flour tortilla when you're done flattening it.
Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray with oil (optional). Cook the dough on the skillet for about 30 seconds to a minute on each side. The dough will become darker and some brown spots will form.
This was great to scoop up my dal makhani with, and goes really well with most Indian food. It's a great naan or rice alternative, too!
Okay, enough about food for the time being... (I'll bet you can't believe I just said that!)
Something I have been thinking about for a while is that I'd like to open up about myself a little more to you all. So, I want to do a Questions & Answers segment on my blog!
Please feel free to ask me anything...within reason of course! You can ask questions in the comments section, by e-mail at (smshah at eiu dot edu) or on Formspring <--if you want to be all anonymous and sneaky :)
After about a week, or when I have enough questions, I'll start posting them with my answers.

Ask away! I can't wait to find out what you want to know about me... 

In the meantime...tell me something I don't know about you! 

The Little Chopper that Could

Hola Chicas! 

Thank you so much for your well wishes on my guest lecture- I'm so excited! I spent hours yesterday working on my PowerPoint slides, and planning activities for the class to do. The lecture is on Wednesday at 11:00am- but I wish it was tomorrow :)

I was cooking with a friend yesterday and I started getting irritated by my lack of counter space and abundance of small kitchen appliances. I thought about putting some away in boxes but I realized that I use all of my appliances (blender, food processor, spiralizer, steamer, rice cooker...) on an almost daily basis. 

They are all important in my kitchen and today I want to share some stuff that's been coming out of my little food processor!

I got this small Cuisinart processor courtesy of CSN Stores earlier this month and use it so much!

I have made Veggie Good Falafel:

Angela's Creamy Avocado Dressing:

I skipped the olive oil in her recipe and instead of pasta, served my sauce on a big bed of cabbage, zucchini, tomato, carrots, black beans, and lettuce! The sauce was amazing- it's a must make dish!

I've also made oreo balls twice...

and one of the latest things I've been making is...

Tropical Berry Balls

These were inspired by Allison's recipe.

In mine, I used:

1/3 cup dried berries (cranberries, blueberries, strawberries)

1/2 spear dried papaya, diced

2 TBSP cashews

1 TBSP agave nectar

1/4 cup oats

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

I pulsed all of these things in the food processor until they came together into a big mass. I rolled them into 6 balls and even rolled a few in unsweetened coconut.

Delish! Thank you for the recipe, Allison!

This is a super quick 5-minute dessert, and they make great pre-workout snacks. And- they're way cheaper than LaraBars or any other raw bar, and just as (if not more) tasty!

What is your favorite kitchen appliance?

OMG Cookies & More Stripes

Hi, friends! What's new?

I'm doing great :) Thanks for asking...hehe. I've been getting busy with schoolwork lately and haven't had as much time to blog. Not to worry though, there are still some magnificent things occurring in my kitchen!

Last night, I was craving cookies. Specifically, cookies with chocolate.

After some careful assessment of my pantry, OMG Cookies were born. Why OMG? Because the entire time Raine and I were eating them, we kept repeating "OMG these are so good," over and over again.

This is one of the first times I have created a cookie from scratch, and I can't believe they turned out so well the first time!

OMG Cookies (makes 24-26 cookies)

1 heaping cup flour (I used unbleached white)

1/4 + 1/8 cup Sugar in the Raw

1/4 + 1/8 cup brown sugar

1 stick vegan butter (mine is olive oil based- any stick butter will do)

1 TBSP chia seeds + 3 TBSP water (chia egg)

1 tsp vanilla

scant half cup dried mixed berries

scant half cup chopped Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt/dark chocolate chip mixture (you could use chocolate chips here- this is just what I had in my chocolate stash!)

Preheat oven to 375*

Combine the chia seeds and water in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream the sugar, butter, and vanilla together with a hand mixer until very well incorporated. When the chia seeds have absorbed all water (all of it!), stir them into the butter-sugar mix. Add flour and mix well. Add the chocolate and berries and mix until they're well disbursed throughout the dough. 

Spoon heaping tablespoons of the dough onto a greased baking sheet, making sure cookies are spaced at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes and let cool before removing from the baking sheet.

Devour.

Don't do as I did and eat 6 cookies all at once...

Do leave a few bigger chunks of chocolate for a special melty treat...

The chia seeds got all toasty in the oven and added a fantastic crunch to these! The cookies were crispy on the bottom and soft inside and OMG...just...OMG. 

Let me know if you try making these! I'm pretty sure you could use anything inside...berries, chocolate, nuts, seeds, coconut, you name it!

And, I'm so glad you liked my stripes! I love stripes too- I own a lot of clothes that are striped. This is something I wore recently- when the temperature rose to 50*

I have a hard time taking an up-and-down picture of myself. I need help.

I also brought out my cowgirl boots! 

For some reason I kept calling them cowboy-girl boots. It was great to walk around in shoes other than snowboots!

Topped my outfit with a red bow on a headband and I was good to go :)

On an unrelated note- I've been having some Internet problems lately and have been having a hard time leaving comments! I think it has resolved itself though... but if you haven't heard from me lately, know that I am still reading :)

PS: I am giving a guest lecture on Wednesday on body image. Do you have any ideas for activities I could do with the class? The lecture + activities should take up about 50 minutes, and there are 30 undergraduate students in the class! So far, I'm going to tie in Operation Beautiful to my lecture and have them fill out their own sticky note to put somewhere on campus.

What do you think?

Lost in Translation

Hello friends :) Happy Wednesday- we are almost to the weekend.

I finally decided to break out the miso that my friend helped me pick out at the Asian grocery store and make some soup.

She told me that white miso is sweet, red miso is very salty, and yellow is in-between. I followed the instructions on the lid of the miso and also used the ground seaweed stock that I also got at the store. The entire package was in Japanese though! Luckily, there was a website printed in teeny tiny font on the package.

Of course, it was also in Japanese. Thank goodness for Google Translator!

I was able to find the ratio of powder to water that I was supposed to use on their site. Then, I got very excited when I found a "Recipes" section.

Unfortunately, this is what I got:

umm yeah. Thanks a lot, Google!

I am not sure what "bee tie" is, but I know I am not eating it. And I am definitely not smoking this soup.

I am however, slurping this soup:

Yummy miso! I put broccoli, tofu, and a small amount of carrot and bell pepper in mine. It was wonderful and I think I want to put some mushrooms in it next time! I told my Japanese friend what I had done with my miso and she said she always laughs at what people here put in their miso. It may not be traditional, but it was tasty! 

I ate two bowls of soup and put the rest away for later. Do not do this. This soup did not keep well in the fridge and had a strange odor and taste when I tried to eat it again...

Something else I've been experimenting with is the Sencha tea that I also got in Champaign. This was the first time I've had Sencha and I really like it! It took me a few sips to get used to it though- it has a really strong seaweedy smell at first, but it doesn't taste fishy at all.
I found this awesome interactive site that has a lot of information about Sencha, too.
Of course, I have to do more with my tea than just drink it!
Yesterday after I got home from school, I whipped up this Sencha Infused Tofu:

I made a marinade loosely based off of one of Averie's recipes for Green Tea & Honey Ginger Tofu.
I used:
1/2 cup brewed Sencha tea
2 TBSP agave nectar (or honey)
1 TBSP ginger-garlic paste
2 TBSP apple-cider vinegar
1 TBSP sesame oil

I marinated to tofu for a very short time (I was so hungry!) and baked it for 25 minutes at 425* turning it at the 20-minute point. Then, I broiled it for a minute. I didn't press my tofu very well beforehand, but if you did you probably won't need to broil it.
This was great! The Sencha and the agave nectar were really good together and I will definitely make this again.

Well, I've gotta go- I really need to make some Radish Sesame or Unjustified...

Kidding.

Do you ever use your ingredients in non-traditional ways? What do you make with them? I definitely test the boundaries of many ingredients...from Channa Masala Pizza to Faux-Co Crispies, you can tell I like to mix it up in the kitchen!

Vegan PB&J French Toast with a Side of Fashion

The other night I was in the mood for breakfast for dinner, and I had a serious sweet tooth going on.

Thus was born: Vegan PB&J French Toast with Bananas

That's a mouthful, and so is this dish...

First, I made a "batter" from 1/3 ripe banana, 1/2-1 TBSP flaxseed (would have been better ground), a generous splash soymilk, and equal splash of pomegranate-plum juice (any juice- orange, apple, etc would work), and about 2 TBSP oats. Sorry I didn't measure everything out- I was hungry!

I blended all of those ingredients in the food processor and poured it into a bowl for dippage:

 Dip slices of bread in the batter on each side and make sure you get some flax/oat solids stuck onto the bread along with soaking it well.
Cook in a skillet as you would with any French Toast, with olive oil spray (what I used), margarine, butter, whatever you want.

This is what it looked liked after cooking. I actually put the finished slices under the broiler for a minute to make it extra-toasty.

I made 2 slices using whole wheat bread, then slathered one side with strawberry preserves and one side with crunchy PB. Then, I sliced the rest of the banana over the top, sprinkled on some coconut, and to put it even more over the top--drizzled on some sugar-free maple syrup.

Holy Yum! This was really, really good y'all. I got the batter idea from various vegan French Toast recipes I've seen floating around, but didn't use any specific one. I bet you could even add some cinnamon or vanilla to the mix for an extra delicious taste! 

Olivia also made some equally delish PB&J Stuffed French Toast recently-check it out!

Breakfast foods are probably my favorite types of food, and Brunch is definitely my favorite meal of the day. It's just fun to say, and I associate "Brunch" with cooking breakfast with my boyfriend or meeting friends for a mid-morning meal. 

I went to brunch with a friend recently, and this is what I wore:

Sweater: Forever 21, Jeans: BDG at Urban Outfitters, Slippers (did not wear those out!): Victoria's Secret

This is one of my favorite sweaters- I love the detail on the right side:

 I also had on a shiny sparkly ring, and my new nailpolish that I got in Champaign.

 While I love a good cute sweater...I'm ready to pack them all them away and bring out tank tops and flip flops! What do you most want to wear once the weather is warmer?

Bye-Bye!

Valentine's Day and a Happy Anniversary

Hello friends! Do you celebrate Valentine's Day?
I love hearts, all things pink, and chocolate--but I like them all year, not just on this one day!
Valentine's Day is the day my mom and step-dad got married, so it's their anniversary :)

Love them!

Happy Anniversary!!

Growing up, I always associated Valentine's Day with going out to dinner with my parents and sister to celebrate their anniversary- and I liked it that way!

I feel like this day causes so many people a lot of stress though...people worry about being able to get a reservation at the perfect restaurant, if their significant other will like the gift they bought, and even how much money to spend on each other! People also get so worked up over not having someone special to celebrate Valentine's Day with. I even remember girls in my dorm having "Anti-Valentine's Day" parties and Single-Appreciation Day.

I love Mansee's approach to V-Day :)

And here's an awesome post from Consumerist about celebrating Valentine's Day stress-free and without spending big bucks.

Raine and I definitely celebrate our love for each other every day, and use this day as an excuse to spend even more time together. We do go all out for each other on birthdays though, and on our anniversary!

What could be better?

Last night we did cook dinner together- Vegan Tacos!
I bought a huge bag of Textured Soy Protein on a whim at the store last week and we decided to try it out.
From dry:

To hydrated:

To chopped in the food processor:

Raine prepared these like any other taco filling, with a seasoning packet.

We served it up with shredded cabbage, refried beans, homemade salsa (Raine's recipe!), and some crunchy chips.

And what's that box in the back? You'll have to read on to find out...

I had 2 tacos and the soy filling was really good!

I can't wait to experiment more with this stuff.
Then, we opened the box...

and found inside...

Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cupcake

We got this from my friend Corey who has just opened up his own bakery- called Imagination Cakes. It was awesome! If you live in southeast Illinois..definitely check out his cakes!
Raine and I mmm'd and ahh'd as we devoured this :)

What are you doing for Valentine's Day?

Shopping & Sushi Extravaganza!

On Thursday some of the girls in my program and I took a trip to Champaign for sushi and shopping. What could be better?
We started at the mall and spent a good 3 hours there...I tried not to buy too much, but the siren call of Forever21 will always lure me in...

I got some fun socks (love the mushroom pattern on the black ones!) and sunglasses from F21 along with some tops and a dress. I also got a lip gloss at Victoria's Secret, and a funky green nailpolish from Sephora. I'm loving mint-green things these days. The clothes didn't photograph that well...so you'll see them when I wear them! I also got a free (unpictured) full-size body wash from Sephora as a belated birthday gift when I signed up for a rewards card :)
After the mall, we met up with a friend for dinner at Sushi Rock on East Green Street.
I ordered the vegetable gyoza:

These were pretty good- maybe a bit over done though, as the tops of the dumplings were a bit dry. The sauce that came with these was so spicy it made me cough, too!

The star of my evening was this:

Yam tempura rolls- these had cucumber, carrot, avocado, and tempura fried yam inside, and were topped with sesame seeds and a savory sauce. This was the best vegetarian sushi I've ever had! This picture is making me want it again right now...

It was my friend Ashlee's first time trying sushi and her first time using chopsticks!

She was an instant pro:

Ashlee is a vegetarian too, and got the veggie rolls. She liked them! 

After dinner we headed to Cold Stone. I debated in my head whether I should get any ice cream or not, as it doesn't always agree with me...but after a sample of the coffee ice cream (my favorite flavor), I ended up getting the smallest size...which wasn't very small at all.

I was basically shivering as I ate this--it was about 10 degrees outside, but it was very tasty!

Unfortunately, all of the sugar kept me awake until well past 4am the next day.

After dessert we headed to an Asian grocery store to stock up on some items we can't get in Charleston.

This is what I got:

From the top left: 10 lbs Basmati rice, Japanese Sencha tea, roasted chickpeas, coconut oil, tamarind paste, 3 Indian boxed dinners (for Raine). Second row: Nori for sushi, sesame candy, dashi kombu (seaweed powder for making soup), millet, and dried fruit (mango, ginger, kiwi). At the bottom are a tea strainer and a soup spoon for this Miso:

I love miso soup! My dad used to buy miso paste and make soup for me when I was a child, but I have only eaten it restaurants since then. I'm glad I can start making it for myself now- with whatever I want to put in it! 

Something I did not get was this:

 eek! I know some people probably love this stuff, but it's not something I'm interested in trying! To each their own...
All in all, the trip was a success, and I can't wait to go back to Sushi Rock and back to Champaign.

PS: I've made a Master of Her Romaine page on Facebook- please feel free to "Like" me!