Reemerging

To reemerge, to come back, to reappear, to return. 
Resurging once again from the depths of despair. 
I supposed that sounds very harsh but sometimes is the only way to call what others would say it's the daily routine.
Routine is my least favorite word in any language, I really dislike it.
I once read in a book this phrase: "I rather be shocked than bored" and I guess that somehow stayed with me. There is nothing more boring than having a routine, although I must agree that sometimes is a necessary evil. Which brings me to my long absence from this blog. 

Yes, routine kept me away but trying to break away from that awful daily life also kept me away. I'm not saying I don't have a routine anymore, I'm just implying that I finally got out of the one thing that kept me from doing what makes me happy.
Now finally liberated I can concentrate on the small things that make me smile.

And one of those things is being able to talk and write about how being a vegan has change my life. How good it makes me feel to be able to say everyday that I no longer eat meat. No living been should have to suffer for us humans to be able to breathe. And I have the firm believe that our lives are no more important or valuable than all of those, pigs, cows and chickens that die every day so that someone can satisfy their taste buds.

I want to retake this blog and finally keep it up the way I first intended to, so hopefully those few of you that have been asking me when will I write again can forgive my absence and accompany me in this journey. If there is anyone one out there reading this for the first time and are interested in becoming vegan, I applaud you! I thank you and the many animal lives that will be saved thank you as well. 

Here I leave you with a link of a great start up guide:

  Go vegan for them, start today-> http://www.the30dayveganchallenge.com/fe/29373-30-day-vegan-challenge

Please subscribe and share! See you soon!

Eating out Vegan

I have been vegan for for about 8 months now, and being a fan of eating out at least twice a week I must say that it has not been easy finding places that are vegan friendly here in Boston MA.

One of the places I used to always go out with friends and family is TGI Friday's. But after going vegan I realized there are very few plates you can convert to vegan friendly there, which is very disappointing.  They put cheese on almost everything and the dressings I'm sure have some kind of dairy in them, that I have no choice but to order plain salad with an italian light dressing, or the pasta with tomato sauce on it, making sure you say "no cheese on it please"  I once had the fried green beans, but I'm sure the batter is made with egg whites, so I decided to not ever order it again.

Friday's Pasta with Alfredo Sauce. No Meat.

Another place I like going is Bertuccis, I of course loved their Pizza! and so you know, pizza used to be my favorite food in the whole wide world! I know... many people I told this fact used to raise their eyebrows as in saying... "how can you like Pizza? why not steak or some exotic Latin food." But I'm sorry to be deceiving but nothing used to entice me as much as Pizza did. The anticipation of that first bite, with the melted cheese and the tomato sauce blend together gave way more satisfaction than any other food would. So Bertuccis Pizza had in my view one of the best available. But now since I no longer indulge in cheese, I order a pasta dish making sure I tell the waiter my preferences which I must say they usually are happy to accommodate.

Insalata

Most other places like Dennis, Friendly's and any other restaurant I have to stick with ordering a salad or minestrone soup, or making my own dish based on their sides.
In Dennis I once ordered the oatmeal with blueberry's on it for breakfast, and you can also do this in Starbucks except here you would order it with the granola and brown sugar which I have to say is delish and so much better than having a egg, ham and cheese on a plain bagel, and healthier!
For most places they really, truly, need to add more vegan friendly items to their menu. Which is why I wrote a letter to each place I normally eat at to ask them to do just that! ;) here is a copy of this letter, you may choose to use it to if you wish, just change the name of the restaurant:

Dear Friday's

Me and my friends and family have been choosing your restaurant for many years over any other restaurant. We like the atmosphere and the good affordable food you offer. However since I became Vegan I have to choose to eat at home more often due to the fact that you have so very little options in your menu. Would you please consider adding some vegan or vegetarian friendly items?
I would love to be able to order a veggie burger with fries, rice with tofu instead of chicken and vegan cheese or a plain salad without cheese on it and a good dairy free dessert.
With so many people choosing a healthy vegetarian and vegan lifestyle, I think this would be a great thing for you to offer! Please do consider my suggestion.


Thank You!

Home made Vegan Chili with rice and strawberry lemonade. 

Of course Boston has a few good vegan restaurants, so I'm grateful to be able to go out with friends and have a good option for me available. Hopefully someday every restaurant will add more friendly and meatless options to their menu or they will be losing big time! 

 

Winter, Vegan restaurants and other events...

Winter is by far my least favorite season of the year.

I guess the reasons are obvious, is too cold, it snows, skin goes dry and you get the winter blues.

This last one is probably the one that gives me the most trouble, because it is really hard to handle being depressed and of course with the holidays coming it's just even worse.

The good thing is that being vegan in winter seems to be a lot easier! For instance I found out there are a couple of nice restaurants close to me that I can indulge on. The newest one in the Boston Area is True Bistro which will open this Tuesday! I really can't wait to go, I did try to make a reservation when the Boston Vegetarian Association went this Saturday to a soft opening but all the spots were taken really fast! There is this other place I been dying to go, Piece of pie for Vegan Pizza! I saw the pictures and it really looks delicious! They were selling this pizza at the Vegetarian festival last weekend but when I went around their table all the pizza was gone! I overheard some guy there saying "I can't help it if my pizza is so damn good!" which I though it was kind of rude. But I guess he's only saying the truth. I will experience it soon since I'm going to a book signing on November 18th! The book is call: The Vegan girls guide to life. I follow the author on Twitter and she seems like a cool down to earth girl and can't wait to meet her! and try the Pizza ;)

Another thing I will like to do this month is go to one of the meetings the Boston Vegan Association gives on Fridays at the Karma Yoga Studio. It seems like a good way to meet other vegans around here. So I will be posting on any of this experiences when I do go to either or better yet all of them!

Sounds like a lot when I write it but it's really not much I guess.

I always try to commit to too much and at the end don't really do it, which is disappointing :( I don't know if it's the Gemini in me because I seem to always start two or three projects at the same time and then I get overwhelm when I have to finish them! So I guess we'll see! I will also commit to write more often on my blogs, I really want to! Is a need to express my self that I take away when not feeling motivated enough but is something I really really will like to commit!

I truly hope everyone is having an awesome vegan/vegetarian winter!

See you in the next post...

Para los animales todos los humanos somos nazis

 Me sentí plenamente conmovida cuando vi este vídeo, que no pude hacer otra cosa mas que querer compartirlo. ¿Hay alguien allí que lo este viendo?
Si no te sientes conmovido al igual que yo después de verlo, sencillamente no se que clase de sentimientos puedas tener.
No es justo para los animales ser tratados de la forma que son tratados ¡diariamente!
Acaso somos todos tan ciegos como para no ver el daño que le estamos causando a nuestros cuerpos y ¡al planeta entero!
¡Por favor! Te suplico que tomes un momento para reflexionar en lo que pones en tu cuerpo.
Te invito a tratar este nuevo estilo de vida.
Cambia tu dieta a una mejor basada en vegetales, legumbres y granos. ¡Te aseguro que no te arrepentirás!
Si tienes una duda, o necesitas apoyo para empezar, ¡escríbeme! mi email es: lily.flor@yahoo.com
Sígueme en twitter, mi nombre alli es Lilyflor  Si necesitas mas inspiración te recomiendo leer Skinny Bitch.

   

Tambien ve a Youtube y en buscador escribe: 10 razones para ser Vegetariano:

 

Gracias por leer y ser parte de algo ¡¡muy grande!! Una mejor vida, para ti, para mi, ¡para todos!

Odyssey of a recipe

So the other day I was watching the Supreme Master Channel and I was very excited about doing one of their recipes. It was a very nice Argentinian cooking show and they made this Millet and Broccoli Tart.  It look easy enough... except the ingredients proved to be very hard to find. For instance: Millet
I went to stop & shop and market basket and didn't find it, I even went to this chinese market and they didn't have it there either. Another ingredient was Cassava starch, I started to even search on line and nothing until I came across and article that said that Cassava Starch was mainly Yuca starch sometimes called tapioca starch or in spanish fecula de mandioca. Then I read somewhere online that Millet could be find in the natural foods section in Stop & Shop! trust me I searchwd there too! but armed with this knowledge I went back to Stop & Shop and found it!! I almost jumped out of excitement!
And Yes I could have gone to Whole Foods and I know they have the Millet there though I wasn't sure about the tapioca starch but I was pretty positive they had it, the thing is that Whole Foods is a little far away from me and I wanted to cook it that night! (yesterday)
So I came back home and organize all my ingredients and started cooking. (Another thing that was challenging was knowing what "gratinar" was it turns out is the broil option on your oven just turn this on so the upper part only will lit up and this will basically cook your meal until it's golden on top)
Anyway I was done cooking, my tart was almost done, I took it out and then I started thinking... wait!
what if I don't like this thing?? I never had millet or cassava starch. I panicked for a minute but nonetheless I cut me a piece... I tried it... and I must say!! I love it!! it was divine!
I sprinkled some parsley leaves, a few drops of olive oil and lemon juice on top and it was another match made in heaven! In fact I loved it so much I had another piece :)
After that I took the picture for your enjoyment, of course it doesn't look as good as the original but hey it was my first time!
I'm leaving the link to the video under and hopefully you guys can try it too! Let me know if you do how it goes ok.

Until next time!

SupremeMasterTV.com

Supreme Master Tv and more

So I downloaded a new App for my Iphone the other day!
It was for a Vegan 24 hour channel, I wasn't sure if I should or if I would like it but I did and I must say that I love it!!
I already seen a few shows I like, they also have great easy to follow recipes! (I'll post some soon just need to go food shopping)

I really recommend everyone to go and visit this channel you can even access it on the web! here is the Address:

www.suprememastertv.com

I know I haven't written in a while but If you do read my blog I ask you to be patient, I do tend to take long between updates and besides I do not want to bore you with gibberish so subscribe or add me to your twitter my nick name there is Lilyflor and I'll post there when there is an update.  Also please leave me a comment if you like!

So yesterday I ordered a pair of sneakers from Zappos they are the Vegan white and silver sneakers from Earth foot wear! They are supposed to help me lose weight as I walk!! I'll let you know how that went when I get them! I want to start walking soon! summer is just around the corner and that only means is bikini and tank top season. And as you can see from this blog I'm a vegan yes, but I'll like to be a sexy one! ;)

Also the other day my boyfriend got me the Skinny bitch and Skinny bitch in the Kitch books!




  
I already read the Skinny Bitch book so I decided to get the Skinny Bitch in the Kitch as well. It looks like it has a lot of good recipes and I can't wait to try it out!
I'll be posting if I do ;)
This book I bought it after I found out it was Vegan, I had seen it on the shelves at the book store but I wasn't sure I wanted to read it. Another diet book you know. But when I read It was Vegan I decided to read it and I love it!!
Those girls are crazy! I love their honest approach and how they explain things. Trust me you will not want to even touch meat of have anything dairy after reading it!
So hopefully I can inspire a few of you to read them!

Vegetarian Taco Recipe

Vegetarian Taco

I ate vegetarian tacos the other day at this place in Somerville MA called Taco Loco and I had the Vegetarian tacos. I was a little bit skeptic about them at the beginning but once I try them I was in love!

So today I kind of made my own version, I guess I could have added some guacamole to make it better but sincerely it was really good!

So I'm leaving you guys the recipe here in case you want to try it out.

Ingredients:

Serves 2

Flax seed whole wheat tortillas

Or any kind of tortilla of your choice but read the ingredients.

1 whole cauliflower

Broccoli florets (a bunch)

1 small Red bell pepper

1 clove of garlic (chop in tiny pieces)

1/2 a medium size onion

6 medium plum tomatoes (or a can of organic dice tomato)

1 Can of tomato sauce (organic)

Sea salt and Red (cayenne) Pepper to taste

1 tbsp of olive oil (or canola your choice)

1 tbsp of earth balance butter

1 tbsp of vegetable seasoning

Preparation:

Cut the cauliflower in small pieces

Wash your cauliflower and Broccoli florets and steam or boil in a medium sauce pan until soft.

Chop your onion and tomato in small pieces and half

your red pepper in julienne cut and the other in small chunks

set it aside.

Instructions:

Melt the earth balance butter in a medium non stick pan add the vegetable seasoning, the red julienne cut bell pepper and part of the chopped onion. Let it cook for about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the cauliflower and the broccoli florets and let them cook for about 6 minutes moving and turning constantly until a nice golden color is around the cauliflower. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste.

For the tomato sauce.

On a medium size non stick saucepan heat the olive oil over a medium high heat for about a minute

Add in the onion the garlic and the chunks of red bell pepper and let it cook for about

3 minutes.

Add in the chop tomato and let it cook for about 5 minutes moving occasionally.

Next add in the tomato sauce and bring the heat to medium to low. This should cook for

about 7 more minutes then add the sea salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

Building your taco

Heat your tortilla on a big non stick pan for about a minute turning it both sides. You can leave it on for a little while until its toasted a little and even add some butter or oil but I like mine soft.

Then add in as much cauliflower and broccoli you want, top it off with the sauce and voila! Eat it!

I hope you guys like it! I really did! Like I said add whatever else you want, maybe some guacamole and some cilantro. If is a friday you can indulge and make your self a margarita!

Being vegan doesn't have to be boring!! ;)

Enjoy!