No Sleep til Brooklyn

After much internal debate and some last minute decision making from my family, we decided to take a mini trip to New York City for a quick escape from small town Virginia life. 

Packing Necessities: Patti tee, a camera, red lipstick, Jeffrey Campbell boots that killed my feet, and my jeans with a snake patch.

NYC is my favorite city, I fall in love again every single time we go. This time, to shake things up a bit, we stayed in Brooklyn. 

I've had this idea in my head for a while, where I grow up and live as a fashion designer (or whatever I end up becoming) in Brooklyn. I wanted to use this trip to confirm whether or not it actually would be a place I could live, and it definitely was. My friend, who goes to Pratt, gave me a tour of the school, and I loved it. 

Now, on another note, one of my favorite things about NYC is the food. There's just so much! New York pretty much has it all when it comes to food. Here's a mini review of the best things I ate on my little trip. 

Champ's Diner (See first photo on left)-  All vegan diner food, with a cool old but modern diner style atmosphere. The sweet potato fries were out of this world!  I ordered a little bit of everything, and feasted on vegan pancakes, tofu scramble, tempeh bacon, and hash browns. 10/10 would eat there again. 

Roberta's - A very hip pizza joint in Brooklyn. It felt a little bit like we were at a club, the trap music was so loud we had to shout to make conversation, but I like trap so it wasn't that big of a deal. Plus, the margarita pizza was soo good. 

The Bagel Store - Classic tourists. One of the main motivators of the trip was the rainbow bagels we repeatedly saw on Instagram. I watched a video on how they were made, and someone in it described the experience as eating cake for breakfast. That was no lie. 

Tea Bar (Last photo on right) - A little Brooklyn coffee shop that we stopped in whenever we needed to re-caffeinate. They matcha and chai tea lattes were superb here. (I can't really believe I just used the term superb, but they were.) 

Five Leaves (Middle Photo) - This was our last food stop on the way out of Brooklyn. We had eaten so much the past few days, and I spent all the time before the hipster waiter took our order debating between more pancakes, or trying something healthy (a word I forgot the meaning of in NYC.) I went with the healthy option, a bowl of quinoa, farro, and some other grain I can't remember the name of. It had watermelon radish, poached eggs, and asparagus on it. Let's just say I'm still dreaming of this bowl today. 

Nyc is like a different world. It has trends that catch on before anywhere else in the US, and I love to go there, just to see what they are. This visit, I noticed that oversized is everything. People were wearing culottes with big, bulky sweaters. And trench coats were everywhere too. All different kinds, but I saw a lot of furry ones. Denim jackets are a classic still too, but just make sure that you don't walk out in NYC wearing a denim jacket without covering it in patches first. 

Shoe wise, I am SO happy to see that they Adidas Superstars are finally out. Vans are the new adidas for sure. 

So that basically wraps up my trip. It definitely got my creative juices flowing, and in the next few weeks (when I'm not studying, of course) I hope to be working on some new projects and then putting them up here! 

live simply

I wish that it was easier and more common for people to shop locally. I wish that everyone could have a garden in their yard, and be able to be somewhat self sustainable. I wish that all eggs came from chickens who live happily, and not in cages. I think that in the future, in order for the Earth to easily house the abundance of humans living on it, we will have to go back to a simpler way of life. Materialism has to decrease. People will need to walk more, rather than drive. Everyone should provide more for themselves. I only wish it could start now. 

That is why this year I am starting to get into the Slow Fashion movement, and have gotten back into making my own clothes. I also am planning on helping my brother in the garden this spring! Both of which I will try to keep you updated on. 

Also, I was thinking of maybe making this into a t-shirt design in the future. Would anyone be interested? 

Have my Cake, (and eat it too)

I've started to actually write and record things in my journal, and this is one page I thought would be good to share. If you don't want to read my terrible, scrawled writing, I'll talk a little bit about what it says down here.

I was at a party with my family, it was a bonfire party, and also a birthday party. There was food, drinks, and tons of cupcakes, which were brought from a local bakery that all my friends rave about.

The previous week, I had started eating eggs, because I joined my schools rowing team-which I will talk about in a post soon-and needed the extra protein boost. I was very conscious about it, only buying the eggs from free range, all organic chickens and everything. A couple times I did think about eating dairy again, but didn't do it.

Now, I was sitting with my mom at this party, and we were talking about the cupcakes, and how most teenagers would eat one and not act like it was a big deal, and I was thinking about it, but still very hesitant. It made sense, I had just spent the last year in a half being an extremely strict vegan, not letting an ounce of dairy past my lips. Then, a good friend of ours sat down, eating a cracker with brie. I made a joke about his cheese-to-cracker ratio, we all laughed, and then he told me a little story. He said that twenty years ago, he hopped on the low-fat bandwagon, and didn't eat any butter, full fat milks, anything like that. He told me how in all the years he did that, he gained weight immensely, but was hardly ever satisfied.

That was a perspective I had never gotten before. This is an interesting article about the same topic, and also, this video may mess with your mind about food, and what you should and shouldn't eat.

Anyway, the whole "vegan thing" wasn't something I did just to lose weight or control what I ate, I also liked it for the ecological aspect. And that isn't something I'm just blowing to the wayside by doing this, but when I'm out with my friends and everyone is eating cake, refusing a piece isn't going to solve all the world's problems.

So, in the end, I ate the cupcake. It was pumpkin spice flavored, and probably the best thing I've eaten since I quit eating dairy. I'm still vegetarian, never eaten meat, never planning on it, but I'm not going to be the party killjoy anymore, when it comes to food.

Vegan Carob Muffins

Today is the last day of January, and I am so glad. It's got to be one of my least favorite months of the year, at least on the east coast. But, I have tried to make the best of it, and today I did a pretty good job of that. After brunch at a hipster coffee shop and then art class, I came home and tried to figure out what to do with the carob pods my mom ordered recently. I had never had one before, but they're really interesting. 

This is a carob pod, also known as St. Johns Bread, for anyone who has never seen one before. They're very dark brown, and pretty hard. The cool thing is that they are edible, except for the extremely hard seeds on the inside. They taste really good, sort of like chocolate, mixed with honey and bread.

Carob is used as a substitute for chocolate a lot, and is considered a healthy alternative to chocolate. It doesn't have any of the caffeine that coffee contains, and is naturally sweet, so doesn't have to be paired with as much other sweetener as chocolate does. 

Anyway, enough facts, lets get to the actual recipe. 

Vegan Carob Muffins 

 To break up the pods, which are pretty tough, my mom and I stuck a knife into the pods and then banged them on the counter. There isn't really a correct way to break them (that I know of) so I'd just say that if you are using them, try a few methods and see what you think works best. 

Here is what it looks like all blended up! Make sure you didn't miss any chunks before mixing the powder into the mixture. 

If you follow the recipe above, your muffins will turn out something like this! They aren't the prettiest, but they taste really good, and have a light and fluffy inside. I baked them for a little bit over 25 minutes, and they were a bit hard on the outside. I'd recommend less time than that.

Try them out and tell me what you think! Hopefully the recipe is good. Also, if you don't have any carob, this is a super simple and good recipe for just basic muffins, or a basic recipe to start with! Enjoy:)

Keep it Unreal. (new tofurky collection!!!)

This week didn't exactly have the greatest start, understandably. It's the first week back from winter break, it's freezing and it's snowy. Today, however, it got much better! There was a two hour delay this morning, so I didn't have to go to school until ten. Then, when I got home, the greatest thing ever was waiting for me.

On my front step was a package from my favorite food company ever, which you probably guessed from the title. Yep, you got it: TOFURKY!

They knew I was a huge fan, and sent me some really, really cool stuff! It made my day. Wait, no, my week actually. It was extremely exciting.

Here is the contents of that package in photo form:

 

I think their motto is hilarious. 

Apparently it'd made from organic material. Green is the color I would've picked for the shirt, so that was another plus. 

 This is just everything laid out. There was a pamphlet about tofurky too.  

I loved Tofurky before, but now I love them even more. (Woah that rhymed! I should be a poet!!) I eat their products pretty much on a daily basis, and have been for so long, and I love them. So, not only does their food taste amazing, but they are great in the customer service department as well. 

For anyone who isn't a Tofurky connoisseur or has never even tried it, I would really recommend it! They're a great company, and also their t-shirts are super comfy ✌ʕʘ‿ʘʔ✌. 

Tea house vibes, bath bombs, and mugshots.

Sunday, Jan. 4th.
Sadly, today is my last day of winter break, and I return to school tomorrow. I am not too sad, though, because I got everything I wanted to done, and I had a blast these past two weeks. Yesterday and the day before were especially great. Here's what I did:

Friday: our friends who live two hours away drove down to visit. After a lunch of spring rolls, noodles and Asian salad, we headed to our favorite tea house, Dobra. 

The menu is the size of a novel, filled with flowering teas, lychee tea, black and green, snacks, and of course, bubble tea. 

This is a Polaroid of me and my friend Sierra. It was taken by her brother Morgan.  

We all got bubble tea. It was fantastic.

I'm pretty sure they were both oblivious to the fact that I took this. 

I could spend hours just hanging out in Dobra. It's so cozy and chill. 

Next, we went to a secondhand clothing store, but left soon since we were all full of bubble tea and needed to use the bathroom in a coffee shop next door. That's where this snapchat was taken. Morgan is wearing two pins that I made.

Our final stop was to Lush, and it was really fun, as well as kind of weird. The Lush we went to is inside of a Macy's, and there was hardly any person in the entire store. It felt apocalyptic, but no one was paying attention to us, so we could do whatever we wanted in the store. 

The Lush guys gave us a demo. 

I bought the pink bath bomb. The next picture is from when I actually used it. 

It was great, except for all of the confetti that was stuck in my hair afterwards. 

{mini post} a link to check out.

I know that technically, the Christmas holiday isn't actually over, and that it goes until January, but since Christmas day is over, it feels like it. Even though I love opening presents, and giving presents and the while shebang, I am ready to get back into my routine and get to work. It will be nice to give my silk-screening kit a try, and my Velvet Underground records a spin. This time of year is so busy, and I'm looking forward to the calmness afterwords.

Well, I'm sure you didn't come to listen to me talk about the holidays, since you can probably listen to other people doing that on about a thousand other blogs, so I'll stop, and get to the point of this post. 

Recently, I posted a picture on Instagram of sushi that my mom had made for dinner. I hashtagged it #whatveganseat, because that's a really fun hashtag to explore, especially if you're vegan. Very quickly, this account found the picture through the tag, and asked if the picture could be used in their online zine! I was so excited! It sounded really cool, and of course I said yes, and I also said that I would put a link to it on my blog. So here I am! 

The magazine is quarterly, and costs five dollars, but it's really interesting,  it's digital so you can just read it on your computer, like, right now.                                                                                                                 

 This will take you to the magazine.

If you don't wanna pay to read the magazine but just want to see my picture, here ya go. Vegan sushi!

-India

Who Needs Jamba Juice?

No more mysteries about the content of this post! So, it's obviously a DIY acai bowl kinda thing, and absolutely anyone ca do it, but the main purpose of it is for the East Coast people (like me) who don't have a juice place on every single street, selling these bowls of healthy deliciousness. Wow, that sounded pretty cliche. But it's totally true! They are actually so good! In Pennsylvania, I have yet to come across a place selling them, but in California, they were everywhere! This frustrated me, since I already felt like those Californians were living in luxury compared to us, but this too?! So I decided to make my own. 

Let me just say it was extremely easy, and there are so any variations! This is just a very basic one. 

I wouldn't recommend adding the cat! It's a little too furry and ruins the flavor! 

This part is not limited to what I've shown! Do whatever you want with it!

Those little pinkish circles definitely do not resemble banana coins, but that is what they are.

And tada! It's not the prettiest work of art, but it tasted so, so good.

Blisters and Bowls

August 11, 2014

Right now, it is 9:35 p.m. and I am sitting in a hotel bed, worn out from a long day of ambling along the streets of State College PA. This is the last week of living at my grandparents house until my family will move into our new house finally. My dad had a course to take at Penn State for his new job, so it was a great chance for my mom, brother and I to get to go somewhere new and explore for a few days. So today, day one out of two and a half in the small town outside of Penn State, our first stop was a cute coffee shop called Saint's Cafe.

We hung out there for a little bit, I had some tea and a vegan ginger cookie, which was very good. In my opinion, definitely better vibes than Starbucks.

Above: At Saint's, with my tea and new thrift-store denim vest. 

Next stop, we walked about a thousand blocks to get to this cafe for a little snack/breakfast at a place called Aardvark Kafe. It's an original pizza place with a whole separate vegan menu that features things from shakes to tofu to falafel. I sat right on the first stool on the left and split a tofu sandwich with my mom. 

This was the tofu BBQ sandwich-it was very good, even if it doesn't look that appealing. 

The atmosphere at Aardvark was...interesting. There was random vintage stuff everywhere! Every table had cards or chess sets or other antique game. The picture above is the main seating area. 

There was a few mirrors sitting on the ground, so heres the bottom half of my outfit today. (and these sandals are where the blisters come in.) 

After Aardvark, we walked around for a while, stopped in a bookstore, searched for bubble tea (which we did not find), went to Urban Outfitters, a few other stores, and the above art store called Uncle Eli's. I got a new pen/marker sketchbook and eraser-both I am very excited about!

Quirkier side of Uncle Eli's.

After shopping at the art store, we did much more walking, which I acquired more blisters from, and also got hungry again. We stopped in a restaurant a friend had recommended to us called the Green Bowl (this is where the bowl part comes in) For lunch, it was really cool! So first, there is a whole buffet full of raw vegetables and tofu and noodles and sauces, which you load onto a bowl, then give to a guy who stir-fry's it on a big stove-thing right in front of you, then voila-you have a bowl full of yummy stir fried foods! It was so quick and good, the only thing is that even though it is all you can eat, it is still a rip-off for dinner since the price rises from 9 dollars (lunch) to around 14 for dinner.

(my bowl) 

Plus, the walls in the Green Bowl's bathroom were bright purple!

The next half of the day was less exciting, but we did walk about a hundred more blocks down to a Goodwill, and the walk was definitely worth it, since the Goodwill was full of great stuff! I got a pair of jeans, a notebook, an American Eagle skirt, and a  Free People jacket. The only bad part was after we left the thrift store, when we got lost in a neighborhood we'd never been in before, far from our hotel. Luckily my dad, after driving around for a bit, found us and took us back. So that is the end of day one!