It is the fourth day in a row that it has rained all day. I feel like I will start to grow mold soon if the sun doesn't come out. I wonder how the people who live through monsoon season every year stand it. The only thing that I can say is that it brings the temperature down so it isn't unbearable.
I went shopping today with my mom and found some awesome new vegan foods I haven't seen before. I'm really excited about some of them like crunchy biscoff cookie butter. Omg I love those cookies.
There is a young raccoon that lives in our yard and it is eating all our blueberries. My dad runs it off when he sees it, but we still haven't been able yup eat any because they are all getting eaten by birds and raccoons. Since we live so close to a swamp, we get a lot of wildlife that passes through our yard. Raccoons, squirrels, birds, deer, and bunnies are our regular visitors. Sometimes we have foxes, alligators, opossums, armadillos, and owls. It is exciting to see so many awesome creatures that just happen to live right in our backyard.
Blackbeans with onions, green onions, red bell pepper and brown rice
Gardein meatless chicken tenders on a sandwich!
Super yummy sandwich
Rain in the backyard. We seem to be forming some sort of pond back there.
Raining in the front yard too.
Here are some of the foods we picked up at the store that I'm excited to try or have tried before and adore.
So excited about this! I've had the creamy kind before, but not the crunchy! These are really the best cookies out there and they are vegan! WHAT?! VEGAN! YES!
Trying a new flavor of Tasty Bite pouches
I've heard a lot about this, but never tried it. I'll let you know how it tastes!
Different type of veggie bouillon than I usually use.
Dried fruits for snacks on the go. I love the apricots and kiwi slices. Haven't tried the No Sulfur Mango slices yet, but hopefully they taste like regular mango slices.
This is the rice ramen I was talking about a few posts ago. It is super yummy.
Had these for lunch. Really good lentils.
This tasted like straight up parsley with a hint of basil. Good, but not what I was expecting.
This stuff is super sweet, but it hits the spot when I really want yogurt.
The ever-present Daiya.
My dad's favorite drink. We go through a few bottles of this a week between three of us.
My Johdpur Lentils and White short grain rice that I had for lunch.
It has been raining here for the past few days. Yesterday the power went out for several hours in the afternoon and on Wednesday the roads were flooding. I'm getting tired of being wet all the time. The good news is that the plants are now very green.
I took some pictures of the food I've been eating. Some were really fantastic. Some were not so great.
Vegan Lasagna with Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, and Daiya Mozzarella Shreds with Mango Juice
Leftover Lasagna for Lunch
Pinto Beans with Celery, Yellow Onion, Carrot, Green Onion, and Roasted Red Bell Pepper served with White Rice
Tempeh Taco Sandwich with Medium Chunky Salsa and Baby Lettuces on Oatmeal Bread
Taco Sandwich being messy!
Chinese Rice with Peas, Carrots, Onion, Garlic, Green Onion, Broccoli, Extra Firm Tofu, Brown Rice, Sesame Oil, Eath Balance, Bragg's Liquid Aminos, Low Sodium Soy Sauce, Garlic Powder, and Black Pepper
Or, Watermelon is the Best Fruit Ever and my Feet Hurt
I woke up this morning to a giant crack of thunder. It has been pouring for hours and doesn't look like it will ever stop. I hope it stops before I have to drive in it so I don't get run off the road but idiot drivers.
I haven't done anything too exciting recently, but I did go to ballet for 3.5 hours yesterday. I hurt already. I took the ladies basic/intermediate 1 class first where we did everything very slow and it was painful to stretch out all my muscle soreness from Koko on Monday and Saturday's ballet class. The second class was the kids intermediate 1. One of the girls went on one foot on the barre and two feet on the floor in pointe work. She is doing really well and I'm really glad she is not having knee pains anymore from growing. I never had to deal with growing pains like many people I know did. I did get Charlie horses a lot in my calves, but mostly that was because I was getting dehydrated in the heat and dried out by the air conditioner. Some of the girls at ballet have grown three inches in a month. They have had to buy new clothes and shoes and everything. I just grew all the time. I was always tall and falling down and running into things because my arms and legs were just a little bit longer today than they were yesterday.
I wore my pointe shoes for both of the barres yesterday and went up on them about half of the time. My feet are getting stronger and it doesn't feel like they are about to fall off all the time now, just some of the time. I'm going to have to get new shoes at some point soon because these really don't have much life left in them. They are pretty soft and comfortable, which is great for standing in them, but not so great for actually dancing in them. Oh, well. My achy feet mean that I am getting stronger and that is a good thing.
Here are some pictures of the foods I've been eating. Since summer is about to hit full force, some of my favorite foods are coming to the stores. WATERMELON! I adore watermelon. Some of my earliest memories are of my grandfather eating watermelon with me on the back porch of our house. I love that it is sweet, juicy, cold, and make the world feel like a better place. All that being said, you will see lots of watermelon in the coming months.
Spinach Daahl, Lime Rice, Daiya Mozzarella Shreds, Coconut Milk Yogurt, Watermelon, and a Banana
I've been really loving this Spinach dish by tasty bite. I've gotten it several times at the store and keep buying it because it is really good. I'm not too big a fan of the coconut yogurt because it is super sweet and I really like plain yogurt, but this is the only kind I could find at the store. Hello, watermelon! You are beautiful.
Millet and Brown Rice Ramen, Tomatoes, Capers, Kalamata Olives, Green Olives stuffed with Pimentos, and Bread!
I really like this ramen. My only complaint is that the servings are ridiculously small. One block is two servings and it isn't even as big as the size of my palm. No one is only going to eat half a block of ramen. Also, you can see here that I love olives. No need to add olive oil when you can just add olives. I've recently been finding that the taste of olive oil has become very off putting to me. It has an almost soapy plastic-y flavor when I've added it to my food in the past few weeks. I've been leaving it out and my food tastes better.
Millet and Brown Rice Ramen with Vegan Pesto, Watermelon, Pineapple, Mango Smoothie (watered down)
I tried a new brand of vegan pesto at the store (I can't remember what kind it was, only that it was more expensive than all the non-vegan kinds, in a smaller jar, and tasted horrible). I'm going to have to go to the other store and stock up on the brand I like because this stuff was bad! It was even organic and free trade. Yeah. Anywho, I water down my mango smoothie into mango juice by only adding the juice to 1/6 or 1/8 of the container and filling the rest with water. It is not as sweet that way and more thirst quenching. Also, enter the watermelon and pineapple spears. Gotta love sweet fruits!
Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich on Oatmeal Bread with Agave Nectar
I don't really like this oatmeal bread. I'm pretty sure it used some fillers because it didn't really taste like bread or oats or anything. It was the only bread left in the house and I really wanted a sandwich for breakfast, so here you go.
Watermelon, Bananas, Lemonade, Water, Blueberry Coconut Milk Yogurt, Kale with Mushrooms and Garlic, Spinach with Garlic and Olive Oil
This is my after ballet feast. I was so thirsty and I didn't want to get up repeatedly to fill up my glass, so I just brought a pitcher of water to the table. You can see my diluted lemonade in the glass in the top right corner. So, watermelon (again) to quench my thirst, leftover greens because I didn't want to cook anything and I wanted something green, and that sickeningly sweet blueberry coconut yogurt. It filled me up for maybe two hours, and then I went on to make my dinner.
Angel Hair Pasta with Tomato Sauce, Capers, Kalamata Olives, and Green Olives with Pimentos
Dinner was pasta, leftover tomato sauce and things in jars that were already open. I was too tired to cook something from scratch, so this is what had to happen. It was super yummy. The sauce was a little too salty for my liking (that's what you get for buying canned sauce), but I only used a little bit, so it worked out well.
And lastly, garlic daiya mozzarella bread. It was cheesy, garlicy, bready, and fantastic. I went to bed full and content. That's all for now peeps! I'm going to watch the rain come down for a few hours. I'll catch you later!
Hi all! I'm back to my weekly updates for my WtM. I didn't walk as much as I wanted to this past week, but I did go to the gym on Monday and Friday, and ballet on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I wore my pointe shoes for the barre at ballet and went up for about half of those exercises. I'm not strong enough to do more than that at the moment, but I hope to become stronger in the next few weeks. We are doing full length classes now that it is summer and the recital is over. I love the longer classes because we get to do more of the leaps, jumps, and turns that I love and we get to learn longer and more complicated combinations.
I went to the Fresh Market yesterday with my mom and I found some cool new foods. The first was a lemongrass basil Thai sauce that I poured over my kale, mushroom, and garlic pasta last night for dinner.
Kale with Mushrooms and Garlic with Lemongrass Basil Sauce over Angel Hair
Kale with the sauce
The other cool things were lowfat and low sodium rice ramen. I got several different kinds to try and I think I have a new fast cook food for when I need to eat and head out the door. The first was made with black and brown rice so the noodles were black. It came with a miso sauce with little carrot pieces that tasted so good!
Black rice Ramen in White Miso
The second was green and had bamboo in it! It also was seasoned with white miso and, instead of carrots, contained seaweed. I added some regular angel hair to it when I ate lunch because the little packet was not enough to get me through church. I also had some bread (I was feeling like carbs today, can you tell?) and pomegranate juice.
Green Ramen with Angel Hair
It is relatively cool outside today compared to the days we had in the 90's last week, so I took some pictures of flowers in our yard while I didn't have to sweat too badly.
Hydrangeas in the sun.
Week #__34____ Day ___21-____ WTR Goals: Mileage__20____
Weight _265_____
Starting
Weight
Current
Weight
Goal
Weight
Projected
Goal Date
Day
270
268.1
175
2017
21-
Date
Activity
Duration
Miles
Beginning
Mileage
Ending
Mileage
Location*
5/18
Walk
.64
369.48
370.12
5/19
Walk
2.96
370.12
373.08
5/20
Walk
2.44
373.08
375.52
Day 22 Weather turns wet during the day
5/21
Walk
2.25
375.52
377.77
5/22
Walk
1.52
377.77
379.29
5/23
Walk
3.09
379.29
382.38
Day 23 Hills higher and steeper. They are forced north out of
their way. Still raining. Camp on a stony shelf by a shallow cave.
5/24
walk
1.68
382.38
384.06
Totals
This
week:
14.58
Total
miles:
384.06
I'm sure many of you have seen this article about the upcoming Hobbit movie which talks about the changes Jackson will be making to the storyline. I'm not sure what to think yet, because I don't want to color my first viewing too badly. If I get my hopes up too much, I will be disappointed. If I don't think too much about it, it will exceed expectations. I kinda feel like running around yelling "I am fire! I am death!" in response to the changes he's making, but I think people would think I had finally cracked.
I'm getting closer and closer to Rivendell in my journey and very close to 400 miles. When I get to 500, I think I should sing "I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more..." What do you think?
Talking about journeys and dragons, I got the new Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien! I won't actually get to read it for a few weeks, since it is going to be a birthday present, but it is now in my mom's closet waiting for me! I'm super excited to read a new (well, from the 1930's, but newly published) translation of my favorite story.
That's all for now folks! I'll talk at you again later!
I'm finally caught up on my Walk to Mordor Updates. This is the one for this past week. As you can see, I didn't walk a lot on the days I went to ballet class.
Week #___33___ Day ___19-21*____ WTR Goals: Mileage__20____
Weight __265____
Starting
Weight
Current
Weight
Goal
Weight
Projected
Goal Date
Day
270
267.4
175
2017
19-21*
Date
Activity
Duration
Miles
Beginning
Mileage
Ending
Mileage
Location*
5/11
Walk
1.32
348.07
349.39
Day 19 continued
5/12
Walk
6.17
349.39
355.56
Day 20 6th day from Weathertop. Camp not far from bridge.
Merry can see the Loudwater far in the distance.
5/13
Walk
4.14
355.56
359.7
Day 21 Return to Great East Road. Strider scouts ahead and finds
an elf-stone on The Last Bridge. He believes it is a token of safety. Company
crosses the River Hoarwell/Mitheithel. Turn north from the Road. Enter the
steep lands of the Trollshaws. They can see ruined walls and towers.
5/14
Walk
2.66
359.7
362.36
Hills quickly shut them in.
Difficult going. Camp.
5/15
Walk
1.68
362.36
364.04
5/16
Walk
3.33
364.04
367.37
5/17
walk
2.11
367.37
369.48
Day 21* More climbing
Totals
This
week:
21.41
Total
Miles:
369.48
*this seems to be some sort of
misprint. There are two day 21s but they are given different calendar dates.
This is the second day 21, 8 days from Weathertop.
I went to the gym today and also had lunch with my mom and grandmother. I had a really fantastic veggie wrap with a side green salad and sweet potato fries. After lunch we had to sit in traffic for over an hour to get home because there had been a wreck on the interstate and then we caught the drawbridge in Madisonville. We made it home slower than my dad who was miles behind us when we left my grandmother. Oh well!
I didn't take a picture of the food I had at lunch, but here are some pictures of food I ate recently and my plants!
Vegan Homemade Lasagna with Soy Chorizo, Vegan Pesto, Tomato Paste, and Noodles
My money tree named Jordan. I've had this tree since my junior year in college and I've had to move it to bigger pots twice because it became too top heavy. Hopefully it will become rootbound in this pot and won't grow much taller. It is now too big to fit into my car standing up, so I'm not sure how I will transport it anywhere easily.
My very sad looking orchid sans flowers.
Bananas with chunky peanut butter and agave. Such a wonderful desert/ meal.
My little plants from my friend Katie. They are growing!
The light through the leaves of Jordan. Look at the way the veins alternate down to the point instead of mirroring each other. I love plants!
