HALLOWEEN!!!

10/29/10

IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN!!!
I am so excited!!! I'm going to wear cute little PJ's with pink bunny ears...
My friend is going to be a purple telly tubby (if that's how you spell it...)!
BUT.....
I can't go trick ot treating, not that I wanted to go or anything, because
I have to....

1. Finish Odyssey Essay
2. Finish Odyssey Bookcard
3. Study for the Odyssey Test
4. Read a shit load of books:
 a) Read ALL of the "Old Man and the Sea" by next next Monday
 b) Read "Color Purple" AND take notes on it-due December 2nd
5. Start on vocab unit 5:
 a) Work due Thursday
 b) Quiz on Friday

HOLY SHIT...............

Honors are hard for nerds too!!!!

10/29/10

Well, second quarter started....

Started off with 2 C's in math and Spanish....

Will I make it?!?!?!

We shall see!!!

I need some comments!!!

10/26/10

Ok, so I'll be asking some questions about school and everything
so if you guys (viewers and readers) are welcome to give your opinion
about that question.... I will also be doing "Mini Competitions"
which is when I give out stuff like, "The person with the best idea wins!"
but because I don't have prises and it's a bad economy in America right now
I won't be giving out prises!!

I hope ya'll make some comments!!

Mommy's Birth Day!!!

10/25/10

Yesterday was my Mommy's birth day!!!!! It was soo fun!!!
The cupcakes (that I made) turned out SO great!!!
I got the recipe from this book:

I just made it my version... A vegan version.... Sorta Kinda A Little!!!

Vegan Red Velvet Cakes
recipe by Jamie Oliver

The cream cheese frosting is a recipe by Martha Stewart and it is not vegan!!!

ingredients:

1/2 stick (1/4 c.) room temp earth balance
1/4 c. stevia
1/4 c. cane sugar
1/4 c. apple sauce
sea salt
1 t. vanilla extract
3 T. beet juice*
the juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 c. Bob's Gluten Free Flour
1/4 t. xanthan gum
1/2 c. soy milk with 1/2 T. vinegar, set aside and let it curdle
1/2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. white wine vinegar

frosting:
6 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese, at room temp
2 c. powdered sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cups
2. Sift together all the flour, cocoa, and xanthan gum
3. With an electric mixer, cream together the earth balance and sugar until fluffy. Add in the apple sauce, pinch of salt, vanilla, beet juice, and the lemon juice
4. Fold in half of the dry ingredients and half of the soy milk mixture. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Mix until it is a red velvety mixture (DO NOT OVER MIX!!! when it is well distributed, STOP mixing!!)
5. In another small bowl, combine and whisk baking soda and vinegar. Add to the batter
6. Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter into the paper cups and bake for 20 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. When finished, let them cool for 5 min in the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely. 
7. In another bowl, cream together the cream cheese and the sugar. I recommend you to sift the sugar into the batter!! Cream until light and fluffy.
8. Frost the cupcakes, decorate it, and serve!!!

** The beet juice is used for the coloring of the cakes. Don't worry, it does NOT give you a beet-y taste!
I made mine at home. It's not hard at all if you have a small beet and a blender!
Here's how you make it:

1 small beet, peeled and cubed
water
kitchen towel
blender

1. Blend all until smooth. Use a slash of water to loosen up the puree!
2. Pour the juice on the kitchen towel, which is on top of a bowl to reserve the liquid, and squeeeeeeeze!!!!

So easy right? Good luck!

Dead or Alive....?

10/23/10

I like organic, so I search for local farmers markets and shit.
And I found this thing in the news papers that said in the lines
of: "FARMERS MARKET IN TEMPE"
I was like, This is awsome!!!
and Mom was like, This isn't a good location for a farmers market...

I had a bad feeling.....

And we were off!! Cruis'n down the road... we had big expectations for the
farmers market....

BUT..... FAILURE!!!

It wasn't the nice, local, and fresh out doors market I had in mind. In fact,
it was a tiny little store with almost all the produce sold out.... There was literally nothing
there!!! I was so sad.... :(
Mom made me mad-er 'cause she was wearing a face like, WTF?!?!?! It's all your fault Monica!!

I was seriously pissed off and hungry....

Lunch at Pita Jungle went well though....

Tomorrow was an early birthday party for my Mom. She's getting pretty old now! Lolz!!!
After lunch, she and I went to the Lee Lee market and got some meat. Here's a sad picture that I took there:

We invited some friends from church and my uncle's family. I hope it turns out well....
I mean, I'm going to be making the cake and the buttermilk grilled chicken so I better not have another
FAILURE day like I had. WISH ME LUCK!!! 

Bobby Flay

10/17/10

Today, I went to Kirkland to go see
Bobby Flay!!!!!!! He came to sign his new book,
Throw Down. I didn't get the book though
because personally it didn't suite me at all....
But since I didn't get the book, I couldn't get a signature from him...

Here are the pictures!!!!

I also took a video of his introduction and everything, but
my dumb computer found an error on it.... :(
Oh well! At least there's a picture of him!

Chocolate = Happiness

10/16/10

This is my story:
I woke up, I dressed up, jogged for 30 minutes, took shower...
It's 9:30am... Look at recipe folder, chocolate chip cookies.... Huh.
Let's give it a try...!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
not my recipe!!! Here's the link to that blog: http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/

The recipe calls for all purpose flour, but since I bloat when I eat gluten
I used Bob's All Purpose Gluten Free Flour.... They didn't spread out though.
I also cut the sugar to 1/2 cup.

ingredients:
2 1/4 c. gluten free flour (preferably Bob's Red Mill. You may use regular flour if desired)
1 T. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. apple sauce
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. agave nectar
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. canola oil
1/4 c. earth balance, softened
2 c. dark chocolate chips, organic and vegan
1 c. walnuts (optional)
1 T. water

1. Combine all the dry ingredients, (except for the sugar, chocolate, and nuts) mix and set aside.
2. Mix the earth balance and the canola oil and set aside. Whisk together all the wet ingredients and add the oil mixture. Slowly add the wet to the dry. Mix well then add the 1 T. of water to loosen the batter. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze for 20 min. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and prepare cookie sheet with parchment paper.
4. When 20 mins. have passed, use a small ice cream scoop or your hand to roll out small doughs. Place them evenly on the cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Then turn off the oven to let them puff for 5 min.
5. Let them cool for 10 minutes and serve warm with a glass of cold almond milk!!!

RAISINS!!! on Twitpic

RAISINS!!! on Twitpic

This is a totaly OMG moment for that dude

A secret....

10/9/10

For dinner today, PANCAKES!!!
But this time, it's a secret 'cause it is the best recipe
that I have ever made!!!! SORRY!!

Here's the picture though:

Yumm yumm!!

Green with Envy

10/9/10

WOW!!! Today was such a good day!!!
Me and my mom planned to go out for lunch today and we wanted some unique food. So we both agreed on Green, New American Vegetarian (link!: http://greenvegetarian.com/).
This is hands-down, THEE BEST vegan restaurant in Arizona!!!!

My mom ordered the Green Burger, which I recommended her to have.

And I had the Western flat bread pizza with caramelized onions, roasted eggplants, and olives. SO GOOD!!

One word: OMG

Then, because I heard about this at school, I searched for a Greek Festival at home so me and my mom could go there after lunch. I clicked on the first thing that came up, and jotted down the address of this location. We were excited and all ready for the best time of our life, but, you know what? it was a restaurant.....!! It was such a fail. To cheer up, we went to a cute little bakery that we were curious of. And guess what? This one visit made my day!!!!!!!
This bakery was called Chestnut Lane, Fine foods and Provisions. (link!: http://chestnutlanecafe.com/)
I ordered two coffees and a pecan bar. This pecan bar WILL change your life!!!!!

Here's the picture

Oh.... It just melts in your mouth!! This is not fat and sugar; this is REAL homemade love...
Did you know my dream is to open up a bakery, just like this?? The place is small but it has so much love in it.... I was so jealous!!!

Our final stop was Biltmore, an outside shopping mall. (link!: http://www.shopbiltmore.com/home.asp)
This is so much fun too!!!
Wow, what a day!!!

Today....

10/3/10

Ok, today me and my mom went to the Pomegranite Cafe

in Chandler, AZ. (here's the link: www.pomegranatecafe.com)

It was pretty good... My mom had the garden burger and

and I tried the bountiful bowl. We also got 2 cookies: a
 pumpkin chai and the cowgirl cookie! THEY WERE SUPER YUMMY!!!
I was full after I ate my meal, so I saved the other half of the cookies for
an after school snack tomorrow!!! 

Oh, and I have a list of cook books that I want:

-Flying Apron's Gluten-Free and Vegan Baking Book

-Kitchen: Recipes From the Heart of Home (OUT NOW!!) 

Savory Cookies

10/3/10

Sunday morning.... Church day.
It's also baking day!!!

Potato Broccoli Cookies

recipe by Vegan Baking; a Korean cook book (채식 배이킹)

Since this book was not written (or rather typed) in America,

it's not in cups; it's in grams... So make sure you have a scale to
measure all these ingredients before you make them!!

ingredients:

120g steamed potato

1/4 t. salt and pepper
2 T. sugar
45g oil
30g soy milk
180g flour
1 t. baking powder
45g broccoli, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly oil a cookie sheet or lay out parchment paper.
 In a bowl, mash together the steamed potato, salt, pepper, and sugar. Then add the milk and the oil.
2. Add the dry ingredients and the broccoli and mix well. The dough should be dry, but still hold its shape.*
3. When a dough forms, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30min.
4. When the dough has cooled down, roll it out until it is 1/4 inch thick and cut them out
with a cookie cutter. With the rest of the dough, form it into a ball, roll them out, and cut out more
cookies again. Prick the cookies with a fork so it will not puff.
5. Bake for 20min or until it is toasted on the bottom, but not burned!!

**if the cookie dough is too wet, add more flour!**
 

Nigella Lawson

10/2/10

I have a new favortie cook and that is Nigella Lawson!
She is such a natural cook, she doesn't even measure perfectly!!
Her food is simple, yet devine.... It's so easy yet so tasty!!
I can't wait until her new cook book comes out soon in October....
I love you Nigella~!

October

10/1/10

Wow, it's 10*1=10 today!! (haha get it?)
and I heard it's going to cool down by next week.
Now, I'm not talking about you other people who live
up in north, or some other cooler places, I'm talking
about Arizona. I hate this place... There's no such thing
as "cold" here!!! Today was about 100 degrees which
is MUCH cooler than the last weeks. I bet it already
got freak'n cold in NY, Michigan, Maryland, and Canada.
Lucky bitches!!!!! Haha....

Ok, so October is a VERY special month for my family
because it's my Mommy's birth day in the 27th. And if
you forget Mama's birth day, you gonna git the worst spanky of
yo life!!! (of course this is not true, but I like to talk in my
sassy southern accent.) I don't know what I'm a gonna get
for her Birth Day, so I'm here to ask you viewers!!!
What should I get for my mom's Birth Day?

The star spangled thing says: "Mom's Birth Day"

*Please write (or rather, type) your suggestions on the "comments"
corner!! The winner will get a sticker!! Just give me your address
and your special sticker will be delivered to you by yours truly!!!