Chicharrones de Tempeh, Delicious Tempeh Strips

{ July 23, 2009 @ 8:20 pm } · { Recipes }
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Vegan eating isn’t hard, but wow does it involve a LOT of planning.

Anyways, I’d been really starting to miss some of my old recipes, one of my favorites being Dominican style fried chicken akaChicharrones de Pollo. Well the flavor is phenomenal, chicken definitely isn’t what makes the recipe good. So I picked one of my favorite “fake meats” tempah and decided to use it as a replacement for the chicken.

This was my first time trying this and let me tell you, the resutls were FANTASTIC. Even my BF who isn’t vegan agreed it was tasty. “Crispy delicious flavor” is what he called it. He missed the texture of the meat but certainly didn’t mind the tempeh strips!

Here’s what you need:

1 (8-ounce) package tempeh
Oil for sauteeing

Marinade:
1 cup lime juice
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 cloves garlic (minced)
2 tsp rum (imitation rum is fine)
liquid smoke to taste

Seasoning:
1/4 cup Wheat Flower (or any kind you prefer)
2/3 teaspoons of the following seasonings:
garlic powder, onion powder, seasoning salt, curry, coriander, tumeric, pepper, (feel free to play around with these and add various seasoning to taste, i do this all the time)

Making something delicious:

  1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Do so in a bowl or a zip lock bag.
  2. Rinse the tempeh in cool water (I hear this takes away a bitter taste it may have occassionally, I may just do this as a leftover habit from cooking meat, lol)
  3. Slice the tempeh into thin 1/8th to 1/4th inch strips
  4. Add tempeh strips and allow to marinate for a minimum of four hours (overnight is best if possible)
  5. In a large seperate bag (a gallon zip lock bag is fine) mix all the spices together with the flour
  6. Heat a  small amount of oil in the pan (I used Grapeseed Oil)
  7. Coat the tempeh strips in the seasoning and saute lightly for about 2-3 minutes on each side or until brown
  8. While the strips are cooking, get a plate and coat with paper towel (to drain the extra oil from the strips once done)
  9. Remove strips and sit on paper towels until ready to eat

Serve with a side of veggies, rice and peas for something more authentic or potatoes.

ENJOY!

From the kitchen of a vegan Dominican :)


Product Review: L’Oréal Ever Pure Moisture Conditioner

{ July 6, 2009 @ 7:04 pm } · { Natural Curly Hair }
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I’ve been having trouble with my hair, thought perhaps it needed more protein. Nope, wrong. I tried a few things that I won’t go into right now but they all made my hair woes worst.

I’ve been trying to find a product in the store to try as i’ve been having the WORST time receiving mail… as in not receicing it at all. I’d hate to spend so much money on products only to not receive them.

Well, i’ve seen a ton of commercials for the L’oreal ever pure with no sulfates, so I thought I’d give it a shot. This product is also Vegan and says so on the back. For only $7 how could I say no??

Bought the product, clarified my hair this morning and due to the fact that I was in a rush I applied only this conditioner to my hair instead of layering products like I normally do.

The consistency is runny and thin. A lot thinner than I like for my leave-in conditioners to be. But I was in a rush,  so I just applied all over, pulled my hair into a puff and left.

At the 50% dry mark I noticed I had little to no frizz (this is after driving with all windows and the sun roof open) this was IMPRESSIVE. However, I had a massive headache coming on but I wasn’t sure why. I run a few more errands and  realise I have a full

blown headache, hair is now about 80% with still little to no frizz. WTF is that smell??

And the reason for my headache becomes obvious.. the smell is ME! Oh my god, this stuff smells so horrible. The scent of all the products is supposed to be rosemary mint. It is extremely strong and smells like a flowery perfume created in the 60s that someone’s gram still owns and wears.

I came home to take a brief nap, I tied my hair back with a scarf hoping that would fix things. It didn’t, I kept catching whiffs of the stench that was my hair.. I couldn’t sleep.

So, I figured I’d get up and run a few errands. Hair was 95% dry now. It seems the dryer my hair became the more prominent the smell became. Every time the wind blew, or if I turned my head a certain way I caught a whiff of the old lady flowery stench. I was

embarrased to be seen with myself. The smell covered my perfume!!

I had to come home and rinse my hair. I checked in the mirror before doing so and my curlies? Flawless. Seriously, gorgeous. My hair was so soft and touchable. Very little frizz, lots of shine. *sigh*

I began rinsing my hair and gagging the entire time. I didn’t want to wash it because it gave my curls such wonderful results. I ran my

hair under cool water for about 5 minutes. Then applied another moisturizing conditioner that I had success with in the past.

I still lightly smell the stench of the conditioner. My dog sniffed my hair just now and sneezed. It’s not as strong as before and the coconutty fresh smell of my current conditioner seems to be overpowering the stench of the L’oreal conditioner.

I unfortunately can not recomnend this product. Had I been at work I would’ve left early because of stinky embarrasment. My head still hurts as I type this out.

Dear L’oreal,

Don’t try so hard, you have a terrific product, just give it to me unscented next time. Thanks.

Explanation, I owe it to you

{ July 2, 2009 @ 8:12 pm } · { Random Rants }
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For those who are interested, this is the reason for all the rapid changes.

In a non disclosed institution today, we’ll call it a Pirate Ship. I had an interesting conversation with the First Officer who is my direct superior.  This individual, asked if I was the person behind the blog behind a pseudonym that I use(d) frequently (as much as I loved it, I won’t be using it anymore). I cautiously admitted yes… wondering where this was going.

Well, a certain post of mine (one of my first from my previous blog that I’ve imported to this new site and new blog) was a rant about a random person. Let’s just say this person was 1st mate to a very important Captain. Someone (this is the great mystery) went through great many efforts to track my blog down for whatever reason. Once at my blog, they tried very hard to make connections between the blog’s pseudonym and the Ordinary Seaman that is I in real life.

Whoever this mystery individual is (perhaps the Flying Spaghetti Monster?) clearly had ill intentions. I’ll explain why.

  1. I have several social networking sites: Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, All Voices, Blog Site, etc
  2. None of these sites are listed under my real name
  3. There are (were) a small amount of co-workers on my Facebook page (none on any of the others)
  4. My Facebook page is NOT under the same name as any of my other sites
  5. My Facebook page does not link to my blog
  6. The person not only tracked down my blog, but they tracked down this specific posting as well
  7. Once they read this post, they assumed it was about the 1st Mate and Captain that they knew
  8. They then proceeded to show said posting to both the 1st Mate and Captain and the Ship’s HR rep
  9. The HR rep (HR is evil per Michael Scott) NEVER mentioned anything to me, just to the 1st Officer, Captain and 1st Mate (why, this sounds a lot like gossiping and the type of behavior that HR would usually frown upon)

At this point, I feel stalked and it makes me uncomfortable and angry. I don’t care who reads whatever but to show it to some very important members of the ship under the assumption that you know who a post is about is unacceptable.

Furthermore, now people are apparently upset about something that they shouldn’t have knowledge of in the first place. This entire thing is so very petty, immature and ridiculous. I’m utterly appalled and disgusted with how it has been handled. I certainly want nothing more to do with anyone on this Pirate ship as I have no idea who the petty Pirate is so now I can’t trust ANY Pirate!

What’s the difference between my venting via a blog and someone calling their loved one or friend and veting to them? In this instance, the petty Pirate overhears the phone call but hears no names.  Then the Pirate goes and tells a ton of people about the phone call saying it was about whomever they choose to say it’s about. That would be considered petty gossip, but somehow this isn’t.

*sigh*

I’m a writer, this is how I express myself. I’m not petty, I’m not into drama and I’m not going to be censored because of individuals with different opinions/views stalking me to make trouble.

I moved everything to make sure I have no ties to old accounts. And to prove a point. To make the effort to show that i’m adamant about keeping personal and work life separate. And that if the person somehow finds THIS blog, then they are clearly stalking me and trying to cause trouble.

I hate feeling like I can’t trust anyone anymore, especially those who I thought I was close to.

Anyways, that’s the gist of things. Soon everything will be back to normal. Until then… thanks for following the new blog.

Peas!!

Biggest Complainer YET

{ June 30, 2009 @ 10:45 am } · { Natural Curly Hair, Vegan }
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I’ve had some complainers, some more vocal than others since I’ve started my vegan diet. I have experienced rude comments from co-workers, friends and even my doctor. Not sure why she’s so mad, my insurance is STILL paying her when I visit. But the most vocal complainer has been none other than my hair! My curls are MAD.

I’ve been natural for a teeny bit over a year now. I had a great routine that worked extremely well for me. A nice balance of 98% natural products with the tiny inclusion of some silicones in my leave-in. This was working GREAT. Well, since I’ve been eating a plant based diet, for some reason my hair has gone completely crazy!

There’s this layer of frizz that has sprouted up, literally over night, making my favorite wash/shake/go method of hair styling almost impossible. My hair (which is finally long enough to do something with since my BC last year!!) is now pushed back into a ponytail, but I feel nekkid without my big hair.

What do I do? New products i’m sure. Yet, I have no idea what type of products my hair needs. More moisture? A protein treatment? Some sort of styling aid to force it to behave? No to the latter of course, I have to maintain it’s health before worrying over it’s appearance.

Hmmm, i’m going to do some searching through natural hair sites and see if I can find a solution. I will definitely update once I and ready to move to Phase 2, Operation Research.

Dairy Milk Alternatives PT. 2 of 4

{ June 29, 2009 @ 8:51 am } · { Dairy Alternatives, Vegan }
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We all know, or we should all know i’m an island girl. So when I found the below brand, SO Delicious on the shelves of Whole Foods I was extremely excited! I enjoy the benefits of coconut milk and oil for many things including conditioning my hair and skin. However, I either make it myself from an actual coconut, or use something similar to the image on the right. Standard coconut milk out of a can that is much too thick to be used poured over cereal or to just enjoy a fresh glass while eating something chocolatey or peanut buttery. Well. SO Delicious (named accurately) has fixed that problem. They have taken coconut milk, lightened it up and created something i’m excited about.

The consistency is similar to Whole Dairy Milk. It is slightly thicker/richer. I would say in between Whole Milk and Creamer. I tried the original and it was not annoyingly sweet. The flavor was definitely that of coconuts, however it wasn’t so strong that someone who is not a a HUGE fan of coconut wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. The color is the same as dairy. My boyfriend (non-vegan who I slipped this to) didn’t even know the difference! Although i’m still going to try other options. So far this is definitely going to be a staple replacement for me!

Nutritional Information:

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