Review of "Mondo Barbie: An Anthologie of Fiction and Poetry"

I got this book years ago at The Ohio Bookstore on Main St. downtown. If you've never been you should go. You get to search 7 floors of books and you're left alone by the staff. The prices are very reasonable too. Everytime I see the book laying around I'm drawn to its pink pages. I bought it for $3.50. It's interspersed with short stories and poems all about Barbie. The themes go from capitalism to classism to feminism to just plain existential and weird to the identity of our toys and how it shapes our identities. Some stories are very sexual or sex body part oriented. It's very provocative and contemporary.

Plain Vegan Cole Slaw with Mayo Recipe

So it's real easy:

Easy Vegan Mayo


1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soy milk

Blend. I used a vitamix. Unsure of other blenders.

Add seasonings as you wish. I added salt and pepper.

I makes about a cup and a half.

It will look just like it!

Plain Vegan Cole Slaw

1 white cabbage chopped up
1 small onion diced
2-3 carrots chopped
salt and pepper to taste
3 T vinegar, I used white
3 T turbinado with 2 T water and heated up to melt
3/4 c. vegan mayo store-bought or half above recipe.

Mix everything up.


I'm super tired from today. My bus pass ran out and since school is over I've been stuffing myself with food.

Ok, bye.

Done with School! Happy Chicks Cake!

So that's it, I finally did it. I got my degree. Whew! I still don't feel all the way normal. I had to finish a capstone with a poster, a presentation and a lab report. I ordered cake from the vegan bakery in Northside, Happy Chicks. I love that place. They have amazing  tofu quiche and chickpea nuggets. 

                                          Chocolate-chocolate cake from Happy Chicks Bakery.
                                                                   It was very good.

                                          My friend Robin's birthday was the same night so I celebrated that too.

Me and Danny

Me and Danny Korman. Past Owner of Park+Vine 

(all vegan general store that closed early January 2017)

                                                      My cats: Top- Pema Chodron
                                                      Bottom- Eckhart Tolle

I'm going to write about the cole slaw I made for the Grill Out for Sam Dubose and my homemade vegan mayo tomorrow!

Almost Done with School!

My undergrad will be done this April!! On May 3rd I'm going to Nashville for an A Perfect Circle concert. I'm really excited to try out their vegan restaurants. I saw four all-vegan ones.

Thinking I really need to travel for a vegan festival or expo sometime. It looks really fun. I'm watching a lot of Vegan Zombie. He has a really cool vegan ouija board t-shirt, btw. I need it bad.

Well, I gotta sleep and study.

Bye!

My Cat Got Cancer and Park+Vine Closed

So it has been a sad week and a half. Foxy got diagnosed with lymphoma. Thankfully when I started a gofundme I was given some money and started her chemo treatment as soon as possible. She is still only given 6 months to live but it is better than 4 weeks. Look at my cute baby.

I was already freaking out because I barely have any money to finish out the school year but I am spending as little as possible. And with the help of my partner I think I will be just fine.

Because I am spending so little I am forced to eat whatever I have and not add on all the nice extras. Since the place I used to work at (an all vegan store!) closed it has been easier not to spend anything. Trying super hard to keep it local. I can still go to vegan-friendly places like:

OTR
Pho Lang Thang-  Vietnamese restaurant
Gomez- Taco window
Bottle and Basket- deli with kombucha and vegan chocolate and soups
Findlay Market (Madison's and Dean's Market mostly)- veggies and bulk food stations

Clifton
Clifton Market- Co-op just opened!
Clifton Natural Foods- used to be on bus route to school but moved farther down. Good place for v sausages and chz

Thinking about Green Bean Delivery now too since it has local stuff and I am super busy at school!

Physics BS almost done!

Kinda of a hole in my heart now that Park+Vine is gone and my cat is going to die prematurely. Feeling super guilty about not doing enough activism and volunteering. But I do what I can.

Today I made my own granola bars and banana bread. I used brown rice syrup for granola base. Turned out pretty well.

Ok, that's it. Bye.

Celebrating Halloween Now! And Halloween Haul the Halloween Bucket List

I love, love Halloween and this year I decided I'm celebrating now. That's about 2 months of Halloween! So today I started with a pumpkin spice donut at the all vegan bakery in Cincinnati- Happy Chicks Bakery. 

After work I went to Target and TJ Maxx to snag some Halloween goodies. I'm going to list my halloween bucket list sometime too. Just like Spookyvegan. I got this sweet cat costume for Fox Mulder my adorable black kitty. I got some candy buckets and a bunch of Airheads and Sour Patch Kids. I got some window clings and paper pumpkins. When I got home I binged on some R.L. Stine. I thought it would be too kiddish but it wasn't. I liked how some endings were good and then others were bad. 

So first I need to blog more but then I also need to have more words of the day if I am to be called vocabvegan! And guess what I have to study for the GRE so I am going to pick one. 

Chicanery- the use of tricks to deceive someone.

And I can add some physics vocab:

Scriber-A machine or hand tool that makes a line to break a chip or wafer into pieces. 

Homemade Veggie Stock Experience and Date Lady Syrup and Karitex Shea Buttter from Vegan Cuts

I was so excited to add another food saving thing to my repertoire. I haven't mastered it but it made my soup tastier.

So after searching the internet I used celery leaves, onion butts and garlic butts that filled one full gallon bag. I kept it in my freezer until I was ready and then I put it in a slow cooker on high for four hours. Then I sifted out the pieces over a bowl. I transferred the broth to containers and let them cool before putting in fridge.

When I made my soup it wasn't flavorful enough and I had to add a bunch more spices but I could tell it added some depth.

Maybe next time I will make sure I have more onions and garlic in it. I have another batch going.

I just bought some Date Lady syrup from Vegan Cuts. If you haven't heard Vegan Cuts is kinda like Groupon for vegans. For stuff not restaurants and businesses. So I got the syrup for $7.50 (12 oz) and their store sells it for $10. Good deal to me. Well, I mean bulk organic sugar is cheaper but I'm trying to eat more whole foods and I'm trying out dates so I thought this would be great since I don't have a high speed blender.

The date syrup is perfectly blended into a little thinner than molasses feel. And it actually reminds me of molasses when I eat it straight, but when I used it for my hot cocoa it was perfect!  So now lucky for me I have a "healthier" version of my hot cocoa. Water, Westsoy soymilk, and Wilderness naturals cocoa powder are the other ingredients. And sometimes I add Dandies jumbo marshmallows. Which has lots of refined sugar. Oh well!

I also got some Karitex Shea Butter. It was 1 lb for $13. I love shea butter and coconut oil. I use shea butter for my hands and feet and coconut oil for everything else. I also use some Desert Essence lotion from time to time when I don't feel in the mood for greasiness. Shea butter blends into my skin better than the coconut oil I feel like. It came in a baggy which I thought was cool because it used less packaging. It seems fresh too. I am already thinking I will order it again because shea butter is usually $20-28 at my local store. Which I love supporting local but I also want to support Vegan Cuts! :) I do what I can.