cody bear’s friends

i’m super excited with my new client: a local organic farm!  they’re friends of mine and i am so glad they finally decided to do a website!  their veg are amazingly delicious and diverse!

i love their farm and i wish they would adopt me and cody bear.  it would be great to quit my job, pack up our stuff and move to their beautiful land, about an hour outside of town.

truthfully, cody bear is a city dog. i don’t know if he would last very long in the wildlands.  for him….off leash, without a bag of yummies sans tweezers and filtered water is wildlands. but i digress….

look forward to pictures of herbs, chunky root veggies, crisp leafy greens and succulent fruits!

hiiii.

ok, here is the other part of the story: (begin dragnet theme. or…would perry mason theme be better? you decide…) click here for part one

having lived here for 3 years, cody bear has never escaped the back yard. until recently. twice in just over a week. (note: my little guy is in doors when i am gone) the task force assembled immediately following fence break number two. task force’s objective? to fix fence if needed and to determine WHY these breakouts were occurring. breakouts were from an area in the wire fencing off the alley; fence between my large back yard and a vacant lot of scrub.

the cody bear safety task force fixed the fence and determined the following: (note: evidence verified by local police force!)

1. original chicken wire reinforcing fence had been pulled back not by a dog paw or muzzle, but something that left a kink or two in the wire.

2. someone had been tempting cody from other side of fence with rawhide chew bone (this is most certainly not cody bear’s bone. because of his gastroparesis he is not allowed under any circumstances to eat chews of any kind)

3. recently (between first and second breakout) an individual had been parking it in that spot and smoking numerous cherry flavored cigarillos.

4. earlier incident of cody bear throwing up chicken bones when no garbage was found in back yard and i do not eat meat could be related.

etc.

the evidence:

and not that this is evidence, but……

look at how cute my little guy is! naturally i want to keep him safe!

local law enforcement (mind you i have an innate and irrational fear of cops) were SUPER helpful, nice, and COMEDIC. i have never met a wise-ass like this one! i think it helped assuage my fear having a stand up comic in a cop suit. we will never know what this person was up to, only that he will be unable to continue doing it. could have just been feeding my dear sweet dog to keep him from barking while he does some shady business. could be an innocent animal lover trying to befriend my dog but may end up with a tobacco related illness.

the police believes creepy neighbor (CN) is, in fact, creepy, but that he probably isn’t the droid we’re looking for. oops, i mean the guy we’re looking for….

the task force, along with helpful officer and caring landlord, have already begun deterrents and we’re feeling very, very safe now…..(add twilight theme music….JUST KIDDING)

so that, dear blog friends, is the story.

 took the canon to my friend’s organic farm to get some shots of veg!  i am going to do their website and they’re going to pay me with vegetables!

they have tasty organic veg.  my favs: their chards. YUM.  the okra.  the cucumbers. the tomatoes. the garlic.  the turnips.  it is all so yummy!

and pretty.  eat your veggies….they’re pretty!

guess which newby vegan has developed a soy allergy….

yes…me.  bummer, huh?

in late november i met with a quirky and upbeat nutritionist who was excited about my leap into veganism and urged me to stay away from soy.  for the first few weeks, i cooked fresh veg and whole grains and i felt GREAT!  more energy during the day….woke up without having that congested feeling.  for convenience sake i needed to fall back on tofu, soy sauce, soy products.

i started getting sicker and sicker and (DUH) didn’t even think about the soy.  well, there it was…. a nasty and inconvenient allergy that just kept getting worse for over a month.  (i wasn’t putting two and two together).  i have been without ANY soy now for exactly 7 days and am remarkably better.  truly, the symptoms were gross and i am so much happier.

back to the drawing board on the vegan diet though…can’t fall back on the mock meats and the soy sauces flavorings.  damn…me lovums my soy sauce…

no editing photos tonight people: the food is ugly and the pets are cute.

once again, i rushed home to be with cody bear as he ran hell-on-paws through the back yard…

the dog was cute and spunky for about an hour.  naturally i won’t post all the pics, just know, ….cody bear can run and cody bear can smile!

next, off to a friend’s to visit, then to a local puppy class to take fuzzy pictures!  off to grocery store for a bell pepper and some mushrooms!

that was a close up of bell peppers, spinach, baked tofu and mushrooms with a super yummy rice mix and a spicy sesame-soy marinate.

after stuffing myself with the vegan spicy food, i took cody bear for his third walk of the day.  he’s such a good bear!  we get back and the cat was feeling sooo neglected, so…here is here best shot with the new camera:

i think she looks mad.  big and mad.

here’s what is good about this dish:

1.  when you come back into the house from walking the dog, (or whatever you do) the smell of toasted cumin is still there and it is SO comforting!

2. the quinoa(keen WAUGH) - oh man - it is packed with protein because it is a whole WHOLE grain and it just POPS in your mouth, which is fun fun fun.

3.  totally vegan, but packed with nutrients and protein.

4.  a nice change from hot spicy meals without being bland.

roasty toasty veggies with quinoa

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

3-4 tbs. olive oil

2-3 large cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 large yellow onion, diced

1 bunch rainbow chard, torn in 3-4 inch pieces

7-9 medium mushrooms (whichever mushroom you prefer) , sliced

1/2 water

1/3 cup white wine(i like a plucky chardonay)

salt & pepper to taste

3 cups cooked quinoa (cooked in a rice cooker is great!)

1 glass wine of choice or 1 beer, for sipping

in large hot deep dish skillet,  toast cumin 30-60 seconds over medium heat.  add olive oil, and mix with cumin.  add garlic and yellow onion to hot olive oil in pan.  saute till tender, not burnt.  add mushrooms, mix, cover and simmer for 3-4 mins.

add water and white wine, bring to boil.  add rainbow chard and salt and pepper to taste. ( i heap the salt in!)  saute till greens are nice and tender.  serve over quinoa.

note…i use freshly prepared quinoa. i do not like left over quinoa,….its kind of funky.

another note….try using fresh, locally grown veg!

housework….not going so good.  here are some old stand-by procrastination moves for avoiding housework and organizing on a saturday:

1.  (an obvious one, and who would fault you for this walk the dog…

2. entice cat to play with cheap xmas toy…

3. (now we’re really getting bold)…experiment with yams….

(since becoming a vegetarian years ago, i have always wanted to try them, but for some reason, i would just buy them, let them age, then toss them away.  so, i had one laying around.  result: it was bland, but i’ll try again.)

and 4. ….

…blog.  turn on pc and blog about how to procrastinate.

ok, back to work.  (maybe the dog needs another walk….)

preface….before you say: “oh here she goes baggin’ her vegan food again…”

hear me out:

1.   sometimes, after a seriously bad day, i want comfort food.  it is usually a couple slices of a nice white pizza.  that’s all.  not a whole cake or anything.  that was my comfort food.  but day 27 of vegan and….i had a bit of a crappy financial trauma.  for reals.

2.  i grew up with dairy, so this has been a big switch for me.

but….i didn’t cave.  i wanted to, but i didn’t.  so…the noodles i settled for:

they have the technology to fake the moon landing but they can’t make a fake cheesy goodness!? (just kidding….i know the moon landing wasn’t fake)

anyway….it wasn’t good.  and i’m sorry to be negative, but i am still learning.  and since i started blogging, i have gotten some good tips from fellow bloggers.  (thanks everyone!)  it was road’s end organics dairy free shells & chReese.  ( don’t know why they spell it chReese…but…whRatever) mustard is the substitute for the cheese.

but, these noodles, dear goodness.  i’ m still stressed AND i still need something yummy!

anyone have a yummy fake cheese recommendation???

i love mustard…i do….as mustard…but is this my new cheese?

well, as some of you know, it has been heartbreaking for me to say good by to cheesy gooey pizza. my last vegan pizza, a trader joe’s deal, was VERY disappointing. but! back to the drawing board…and a good result!

i bought the prepared crust (brown rice crust), but i sauteed the veg. mushrooms with basil, garlic, spinach and fresh tomato.

the toppings were amazing!! the crust wasn’t totally tantalizing. it was crunchy, which is good. but kind of a funny flavor. more toppings would have helped there.

all in all, a definite improvement from the last vegan pizza.

as i mentioned earlier, i needed comfort food today (which is typically pizza) on my 21st day of veganism.  (boo.)  and my last post was written as the following pizza was toasting in the oven.

typically i love trader joe’s. i do.  but….well….

here’s the box:

heres the actual pizza:

now, it wouldn’t be such a big deal: it being uglier than what the box promised and all.  but, well, it was blah.  very blah!  i had a couple tiny slices because i was starved, and dipping them in a bit of olive oil and balsamic made it slightly palatable.

i miss eating things i enjoy.   gooey things.  so, cody bear and i are off to the bookstore to peruse vegan cookbooks.  it might help if i new cows were rejoicing in field somewhere saying, “thanks!  thanks for not eating us, or contributing to our suffering in anyway.” but they’re not….

…and i am starving for pizza.