Summer Secrets

I can't help but feel like the summer is winding down.

HOW SAD IS THAT.

Even though there's still a solid two and a half weeks before Floor Fellow Training begins, these next couple days really are my last to just RELAX and do nothing in this glorious city of ours. Come Monday, I'm off to an ashram, and then it's right back here for training.

So I've been lounging, writing, downing bottles of wine in the park (not by myself...), and biking around like there's no tomorrow. Or at least, like there's no summer tomorrow. 'Cause pretty soon there won't be.

Today I want to share with y'all what is most likely my favourite summer dish:

Here's the deal: chop up some mango, halve some cherry tomatoes, slice some avocado, and pick some mint from your garden to throw on top.

Then eat it, and experience what is, undoubtedly, pure bliss.

ENJOY!

It's a little toasty in here...

I am melting.

I may have already melted, the heat has made me too delirious to differentiate between tenses.

FUN STORY:

My dear friend, let's call him Buke, since his real name is Luke and I always try my very best to keep my friends anonymous on here, has had his sister and her boyfriend in town for the past couple days. Yesterday, he decided, would be the day we would all go to all-you-can-eat Sushi, which just happens to be all the way across town.

It was forty five degrees in Montreal yesterday.

I melted.

I died.

I fried in the sun like an egg (replacement).

And then, after the four of us, drenched in sweat and stuffed with sushi, decided to cab back to our hood (we had walked that journey once, and that was one too many times), I came across something truly disturbing upon entering my apartment.

I had four rotten bananas.

Sad.

So I did what any veggie-blogger would do... I made banana bread.

Yep, that's right, I turned on the oven in my little, air-conditioning-less apartment, when it was forty five degrees outside.

Slaving away over the batter, sweating profusely, I honestly couldn't believe I would ever look back and think it was worth it to put myself through such sticky, heated torture.

But, oh my God... it was.

Heat-Wave Banana Bread:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegan butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs worth of egg replacer
3-4 mashed overripe bananas

Mix the dry ingredients. Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a separate bowl, and squish in the bananas. Combine, and bake at 350 for an hour.

Yum, but seriously, this heat needs to break.

June Savings!

At the beginning of June, I put myself on a mission: to only spend $100.

My goals were twofold. First, I wanted to prove that it was possibly to eat cheaply (while also being a veggie!), and second, I wanted to see if I could.

Today, my like-minded and budget savvy vegheads, I bring you the results...

In June, I spent...

$116!

Yes, $16 over budget. Oops. But check this out...

Here's where that $116 went, dollar for dollar:

Food: 76: three grocery trips, only ever bought fresh fruits and vegetables, tofu/soy
Coffee: 16
Drinks: 24

So...

TIPS FOR SAVING MULA:

1. Always have a healthy supply of canned/dried beans, lentils, etc. They are so, so, so very cheap –and having them around in bulk makes it easy to turn any combination of grain and vegetable into a full meal.

2. Shop often, but in small quantities –as mentioned above, if you have a supply of protein/grain around, it’s easy to pick up fresh stuff every couple days. Shopping this way means A) nothing goes bad (such a waste of money!), B) you don’t get locked into food choices you made weeks ago, and C) you’re less likely to eat out, as it’s just as convenient to pick up fresh produce as it is to pick up a meal.

3. Keep track of what you spend your money on! This month has been enlightening for me. I spent a quarter of my original budget on alcohol (and I hardly even went out?), and 16% on coffee that I just as easily could have brewed at home.

While I think it’s –great- to be aware of your purchases, I think it’s equally important to know what, to you specifically, is worth wasting your money on. For example, coffee. To say I’m a coffee drinker is a horrid understatement. I am a coffee addict. A coffee enthusiast. A coffee… believer! Come out to breakfast with me, and you will see. I can drink cup after cup without the slightest feeling of a fuzzy brain, while my poor friends watch in awe and worry about my nervous system. To me, that’s a worthy cost. Eating out for dinner when I’m just being lazy/don’t want to bike home to make lunch/whatever… not so much. Think about what brings you joy, and don’t feel guilty about spending a little cash moneyz on that.

What a month.

I almost feel like I should go out and spend a fortune just to make up for all the saving I’ve been doing. But that would be a little counter-productive... right?

Um, Yum.

An original recipe, from my rumbly tumtum to yours...

VEGAN PEAR CARROT CAKE

2 cups whole wheat flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg worth of egg replacer (or just 1 egg)
2 tbsp. oil
1 c. pear sauce
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
3 tsp vanilla
½ c. grated carrot

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another, and fold wet into dry to combine.

PEAR SAUCE:
-peel two-three pears in a large sauce pan, adding water as needed to boil down. You know it's ready when it's mushy, fragrant, and you can't help but eat a quarter of it, neglecting the rest of the recipe completely.

ICING:
¼ cup vegan cream cheese
¼ cup soy margerine/butter
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp flour
1 cup icing sugar