I love my job, partly because the place I work is so great! They have a community garden, so I signed up for a plot. I’ve never had a garden before, and I really don’t know what I’m doing, but a couple of my friends have plots, so they’ve been helping me. Things started off well! I planted tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash and green peppers. Here was the garden about a month ago:
What I didn’t realize is, these plants go crazy when they aren’t tamed! My goodness! Apparently caging tomato plants is rather important…Mine have grown outward instead of upward… *sigh* My evening will begin with some gardening, and hopefully getting this garden back on track!
Anyways, on to food. Thank you to Lauren @ Clean Eats in the Dirty South for telling me that O’Soy Yogurt is NOT vegan!!! (Thank you Lauren!!) I’m so disappointed! If I wanted milk in my yogurt, I’d just buy regular yogurt!!! Man, this vegan thing is harder than I thought! So now I’m on the hunt for some good vegan yogurt. Any suggestions? That was the sad part of my day, for sure.
The other sad part of the day was when Mint.com kindly informed me that I’d spent over $400 on groceries in the last month… oops. Anyways, these things happen.
Food review time! I just tried the Newleaf Java BBQ Tempeh frozen dinner.
The picture looked good, but there is nothing more disappointing than a frozen meal that doesn’t look anything like the picture in the box. So here is how things really looked!
Not bad!! I’d never had tempeh before (um, how do you pronounce it??) The flavor this was interesting, in a good way. It excited my taste buds for sure! The beans were tender, and not soggy, and it made me want to try cooking my own tempeh. Anyone have some good (easy-beginner) tempeh recipes? I’m all ears!
Another thing that made my day brighter:
Peanut Butter Puffins!! These little babies cheered up my morning! (You know, since I couldn’t have my non-vegan soy yogurt! Argh!) These will take care of late night pb cravings for sure! 
I’m a cereal junkie, so I try not to buy it too often (seriously, I can make a box of cereal disappear in a matter of days. Not good!) What are some of your favorite cereals?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, recipes & ideas!
-LLV
Chelsey said,
July 14, 2010 @ 1:16 am
Thanks for stopping by my blog! That is such a cool garden! I cannot wait until next summer when I can have one in my new backyard!!
Those crackers are from Costco – they are Crunchmaster crackers. They are gluten free and sooooo delish!! I have a little bit of an obsession with them.
lizlivingvegan said,
July 14, 2010 @ 1:18 am
I thought so! (I recently tried Mary’s Gone Crackers, because I thought they’d be similar, but they aren’t as good as Crunchmaster!) I wish I had a costco membership
elaine @ Om Sweet Om said,
July 14, 2010 @ 2:52 am
I hate it when food items that seem to be vegan are not! Like how some margarine actually have whey in them. I have some friends who are lactose intolerant and they must go through store after store to find one brand without any whey.
Efi@greekyogurt said,
July 14, 2010 @ 3:51 am
I marinate tempeh in in mustard and honey and then bake it. Is one of my favourite dishes.
Your garden is amazing! I hope I ll have one some day!
Surfchic said,
July 14, 2010 @ 8:15 am
Hi
Just stumbled across your blog. Sorry to hear about the yogurt – not cool! I’m glad that you’ve discovered tempeh (pronounced like tem-pay but emphasize the tem not the pay does that make sense). Anyway here are a couple of really great ways to cook it.
Slice really thin – and I mean super thin. Pan fry in some oil til brownish. Place to the side, you’ll probably have to do a couple of batches cos when you slice so thinly you’ll get a lot. Mix up a sauce of bbq sauce, veg worchestershire, lemon juice, hot sauce (if you like), lemon grass and a small amount of maple syrup – sorry no amounts, it’s all just to taste for me. Once all fried put it all back in the pan (ok to overlap) then pour over the sauce, allowing it to bubble and cook down for a couple of mins, you’ll get a syrupy sticky sauce over the tempeh. Serve with rice and some quick stir fried or steamed broccoli.
Another nice option is tempeh burgers. Mash the tempeh, add some oats, some flour, egg replacer, rice if you want to and lots of different spices (whatever takes your fancy), you could also add a can of mashed butter beans or pinto beans if you want to make more mixture to make bigger or a great number of burgers. Make into burgers, roll in breadcrumbs and fry in oil in a pan. Yummo!
I’ve just recently thought that I should try to make tempeh meatballs and simmer in some good homemade tomato sauce. Should be easy!
Enjoy!
lizlivingvegan said,
July 14, 2010 @ 11:38 am
Oh my goodness! So many options to try!!! Thank you for stopping by my blog!
A Teenage Gourmet said,
July 14, 2010 @ 11:24 am
Kashi Cinnamon Harvest! I did a review on it too.
JennShaggy said,
July 14, 2010 @ 2:35 pm
Thanks, Liz!! I’m loving your blog. I’m so glad I found it
Thislady25 said,
July 14, 2010 @ 5:43 pm
Aw it’s totally on my to-do list to start a garden in my backyard. Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment on my blog I’m seriously thinking about taking on a high raw/vegan diet.
Looking forward to reading more =).
Aimee
Meg said,
July 14, 2010 @ 9:50 pm
I love Peanut Butter Puffins! Gardening is amazing, especially when you get to enjoy the harvest
Meg said,
July 14, 2010 @ 9:51 pm
p.s. you can make your own yogurt! Check out this recipe:
http://ohsheglows.com/2009/05/27/homemade-10-minute-yogurt/
It’s my fave
CourtandWhit said,
July 14, 2010 @ 10:32 pm
Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan is an awesome book that has TONS of great Temph recipes. My favortie is their baked Temph Chimichangas. Check out the pics. of my Vegan Chimichanga
Also I do not know of any vegan yogurts, but their are TONS of vegan bloggers, so I am sure one of them can help you out
-Court
Alycia @ Fit n Fresh said,
July 15, 2010 @ 8:58 am
Aww sorry to hear about your yogurt!! That would upset me too, isn’t that like false advertising or something!? We should write an angry letter. Things get done when people write angry letters lol
My two favorite cereals right now: Three Sisters Honey Oaties and WF CinnaSnaps (which are basically cinnamon puffins ha)
kaztronomic said,
July 15, 2010 @ 6:12 pm
Thanks for stopping by my blog today! I love finding new blogs to read, so I went ahead and added you to my blogroll.
I look forward to your future posts.
I love your garden! I wish I had a green thumb, but I tend to kill any plants that have the unfortunate luck to be brought into my household.
I can’t eat tempeh, so I’ll be of no help to you there. Sorry! =P My current new favorite cereal is toasted buckwheat groats, or kasha. It’s a hot cereal, like oats. Yum.
Simply Life said,
July 16, 2010 @ 10:39 am
Nice work with the garden – what a fun project!