The ice cream rocked!

I should say, the Carob Carob-Chip Coconut Milk Ice Cream rocked.

The Cherry Cheesecake Soy Ice Cream isn't too great... It's not completely inedible. It's just not awesome like the Carob one.

First, my cherries were bad by the time I got around to using them---darn the early in the week stomach ache, because I wanted to eat those cherries so bad. However, combining a stomach ache with cherries is not a good idea. So, I used frozen strawberries. Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream sounds pretty good, right? No, it has a slightly chemical like taste.

The soy milk does not, so I'm not sure what's up with that. Could it be the arrow root powder? It's kind of hard to do tests because each batch takes a while to make. Not the actual churning---that only takes 30 minutes---but it does taste better when it's spent some time in the freezer getting more solid. Both of them did that. I mean tasted better when they were more frozen.

Also, refrigerating the ice cream mixture before churning it seems to be key as well.

In other words, I ate too much seaweed tonight. I did what I'm not ever supposed to do and bought one of those plastic containers full of seaweed snack strips. It's taking all of my will power to not eat them all up right now. It would not be a good idea. Too much seaweed can cause problems for me... And I'm a crazy seaweed addict. Really. I should never buy it. It should never be in my house. I'm just going to have one more piece and then go to bed... LOL!

The next thing that I'm going to make is a Rice Pudding Ice Cream.

I'm also going to post some of my daily recipes and the ones that I usually make a lot of and store in the freezer. That's what's on the agenda!

Strawberry Cheesecake Soy Ice Cream

I'm really looking forward to finishing this ice cream. I used one of the recipes I found on the web and just made a few changes to make it my own.

I'd like to get some of the vegan graham cracker crust that I've heard of, crush it up, and add it into the ice cream, too.

I used arrowroot for my first time in this recipe and that was pretty exciting.

Oh! The Carob, Carob-Chip Cocont Ice Cream seriously rocks. So tasty. So very tasty. Plus, it totally satisfied my miserable chocolate craving!

In other meals, I had vegan cereal with vanilla soy milk for breakfast and I made faux-sushi from scratch tonight for dinner.

Things are looking up.

I'm not quite 100% vegan yet, but I've totally cut out dairy, eggs, and most meat, of course. I'm not sure that I'm going to completely phase out fish.

Vegan Coconut Milk Carob Carob Chip Ice Cream

Today, I started to make a wonderful ice cream. I thought that I would finish it tonight. I did not. I was foiled by my own impatience...

I didn't freeze the freezer thing long enough and I didn't chill the ice cream mixture long enough. So, it didn't turn into ice cream. That was sad, but I just put the ice cream back in the fridge and the freezer thing back in the freezer and I will try again tomorrow.

I couldn't find a recipe for vegan carob ice cream, so I looked up enough recipes until I thought I had a handle on what was going on and made up my own.

2 cans Coconut Milk
1/3 cup Carob Powder
1 cup sugar

heat until sugar is melted. then add

2 tsp vanilla extract

put into ice cream maker and run for 25 minutes. At this point, mixture should have a soft serve consistency. (It did not and I will have to repeat this step tomorrow)

Add to ice cream mixture

2 tsp straight booze
1/4 cup chopped vegan carob chips

When incorporated, remove from ice cream maker. Place into air tight container and freeze. Or, you know, gobble it up.

I found a great South Indian Vegetarian restaurant today through the Bay Area Veg Finder (http://www.bayareaveg.org/finder.htm). It's really close to my house, which is, of course, nice!
I had Chana Bhatura, which is vegetarian, if not vegan and has always been one of my favorite dishes, even when I was a raging omnivore. :-( There might be ghee, but I'm fine with that at this point in time.

I was so super-hungry that I gobbled it up when I got home. I had cereal for breakfast and leftovers for lunch, so I'm was a little surprised at how hungry I was, but... There you have it.

Grocery Shopping. One day.

I went grocery shopping yesterday. With the intent of making a couple of vegan meals/recipes.

Spring Rolls
Tofu and Zucchini Stir Fry
Vegan Biscuits and Gravy
Tempura Green Beans
Tasty Yam Fries

Obviously, I'm not really worrying about the fat content right now... I'll worry about that later when the idea of eating vegan again isn't so daunting. I'm focusing on Asian foods, because I can't eat that genre of food when I go out, due to the use of mushrooms and shellfish--- I am deadly allergic to both.

I made the Tofu and Zucchini Stir Fry for lunch for myself and a friend who came over for an afternoon meeting. It was amazingly delicious *and* filling. I served it on Rice Noodles, because, well... I've always wanted to make them and I used to let myself think that I couldn't make the genre of food that rice noodles were in. I'm done with that thinking now. (Thank goodness...)

I made myself spring rolls for dinner. Some with lettuce and carrots and green onions and avocado and some with leftovers from lunch. Both were super-tasty.

I'm feeling like I'd like some carbs, so I'm going to either make some oven-baked sweet potato fries or just whipped up a nice bowl of popcorn...

Or perhaps, I'll just go to sleep--This not taking my medication is really hard and makes each day last about 6-9 hours, before I have to go to sleep.

I definitely am feeling good about eating vegan for a day and will do it again tomorrow!

So, I've actually told two people about my new path towards my new approach to eating. They've both been told that it's secret... and they're supportive.

I am feeling a little wary about packaging and processed foods. Last time I was vegan, I depended on boxed and packaged foods a lot. Like, for falafel and for tofu-scramble and frozen things and stuff like that.

However, just like I'm starting on this path towards this eating approach, I'm going to start on a path towards no packaging and processing...

I'm going to eat packaged and processed things, if they are vegan, and, at the same time, begin teaching myself how to make my own versions from scratch.

I'm wanting to eat better. Okay... That's not really true. I love what I eat. What I actually, truly, really want is to *feel* better... Okay, and I want to be thin. That's the truth. I'm pretty sure that's the truth. :-)

I'm remembering the last time I felt truly good and it was in my mid to late twenties. Just a few years after I started eating meat & dairy again, after eating vegan for most of my life.

So, I'm thinking that I'll go back to eating vegan. I've been looking at a lot of web sites, but I'm not wanting to announce this to my existing friends, as I don't want the pressure of them watching me to fail or succeed and I kinda think that I can do it pretty transparently.

I mean, my mom will see it pretty much right away, but no one else needs to know, right?