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✌. 

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!