Wanting to Take Cooking Classes

I grew up like a lot of kids did, both my parents worked and our dinners were... not the greatest. Whatever was fast and easy to make for 5 people was what we had. Usually some kind of frozen dish.

As I have been getting older and gaining weight I feel like I need to learn how to cook. I know one day I'll be living with Mike and my son and we got to eat. I never learned how to cook. I can try, but usually it turns out to be a huge disaster and the food gets thrown out.

I want to take cooking classes like a simple basic cooking class, but I cannot seem to find any. Most are either through the culinary schools and those are for people wanting to become chefs. I don't want that, even though I like the idea of having my own bakery. Others offer things I don't want... well mostly it's hard to understand what they are teaching.

I don't live in LA or New York so there probably isn't as many places to learn as the bigger cities. I still not even sure if I want to just try to learn to cook healthy or go back to veganism. I just need to make a change.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

taken from someecards

That's right today is my birthday. I turned 28... geez time is flying buy. I actually had to take out a calculator a few weeks ago to remind myself if I was turning 28 or was 28. Yeah, I know I'm not really that old, but when you cannot remember your age it is a bit sad.

So my family has this tradition where we got out to dinner to the restaurant for the birthday person's choice. I was told to make sure it was more omnivore friendly years ago so I try my best to do that. Since my dad had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon we did a lunch instead. We went to this salad bar place call Sweet Tomatoes. I love this place, it's more vegetarian friendly than vegan friendly, but at least I can eat healthy. I did stick to eating the vegetarian options and didn't eat any meat. It's a nice place for everyone to et what they like.

Present wise I got Batman Arkham City from my boyfriend and my family got me a pie pop maker, chocolate melter and a gift card to Amazon. I have so many ideas of that to make with the pie pop maker that I think that is what my gifts will be this year to people. With my gift card I just bought Vegan Pie in the Sky. I have been wanting this book since I heard about it. I've never made a pie and my counter space is limited, but I think it would be fun to have some vegan pie recipes. Maybe I will be making pies like the pie maker in Pushing Daisies (I miss that show).

Still Overweight and Still Not Vegan

Yep, you read that right. I am still dragging my heels. I cannot explain it other than I don't have much food at my house (still live with my parents) and my cooking skills are... bad. We know this already I have mentioned it many times.

I am trying to compile a list of meals I know I can make and anything else food wise on top of the odd list of groceries I write up. I think if I try simple that will help. I have lots of cookbooks, but the thing that bothers me is the long list of ingredients and the amount of space I would need to prepare the food. I also feel like I need to find some vegan cooking class here in Phoenix so I can learn to properly cook food and know the secret to good tasting tofu. Restaurants do an amazing job yet I am so horrible at it. Even with the tofu Xpress tofu press that I have it doesn't taste good to me.

This is coming about because I had to go up another pant size when I was buying clothing for my aunt's funeral and a possible internship I will get next semester. Also, my mom keeps mentioning to me how much weight I have gain. She's blaming fast food, I'm blaming lack of exercise, though it's probably both contributing to it.

I am hoping to get some roller skates and that might help me cut some of the weight, but I also need to make a decision on my diet and stick with it. It will be difficult at Mike's grandparent's house for Sunday Dinners, but if I have my own food and it doesn't look like rabbit food I'm sure they won't be so bad about it.

Vegan Mofo 2011

So this time Vegan Mofo snuck on me. To my defense I've been busy trying to come up with a topic and research for my history thesis paper. The other two years I dropped out after like 3 weeks or less. Vegnews had an article on their website about it.

IF you want a list of the bloggers taking part try this site VeganMoFo

Good luck to those of you who are taking part. I will try to follow now that I see it's on and maybe get back on that vegan horse.

Tofu Xpress

So I finally had some extra money to give in and by one of those Tofu Xpress machines that will press the tofu so you can get rid of all the water. Apparently, if you have too much water left in the tofu it will not soak in the marinade nor will it taste good. I can believe that I have mentioned here before that my tofu even with good marinades never tasted that good. I hated the old method of stacking big books with soup cans on top of the tofu. It seemed like a lot of water was still locked inside.

I will try this product out and will write a review on how I liked it and if my tofu tastes better. I'm always jealous of tofu at restaurants because it will taste amazing there and mine tastes blah, even with marinading for several days.

I must say that I think today was a big wake-up call for me. I was lucky enough to get an actual call for a job I applied to for an interview. I haven't had to interview in 6 years and so I had to go out and buy clothes that look good for a "professional" business. I say it like that because I would be a glorified tour guide, but it's at the state capital museum, which means I need to dress like a professional.

Now when I went to the store to buy clothing I was having to try on pants and tops a few sized bigger than I was the last time I bought clothing... to add on top of that the styling of clothing that is out there makes me look even more pregnant than I am already not. Or on a skinnier version of me it would look cute, but heavier me I look dumpy. We know that first impressions are everything and since this job is at the capital I have to look nice.

I realized that I have known for some time that I need to make some changes, but I just don't do it. I do get a bit of exercising at work with all the walking I do, but that does nothing for me. I also have gone crazy omnivore with my eating habits. It's really bad actually. Too much fast food and nothing healthy. I am trying to once again buy vegan food to make and if I need a quick meal that I stop at Green. It's the local vegetarian restaurant that offers food to go and is 100% vegan.

I also bought one of those kettleweights. I haven't used it yet, but hopefully I can at least lift it a few minutes a day to build up my arms. They are flabby and look horrible right now. You'd think with a kid and picking him up I would have some amazing looking arms. Well I do not. I also just bought one of those tofu presses from Amazon. I think one of the reasons my tofu doesn't taste good is that I have too much liquid still trapped in the tofu. So hopefully I can start making some needed changes.

Vegan Yet?

So have I been doing a great job... no. I have been off the wagon in both veganism and eating healthy. I went back to drinking normal soda, eating fast food or fry food, lots of processed foods, not exercising (I'm not counting work), and I am sure there are other things wrong. I'm not 100% sure if I have gained even more weight. I went to buy shorts for the remainder of summer and for my trip to Vegas and I had to buy a size 15... never have I been a size 15. My 13 jeans fit fine, so maybe that it was brand runs small.

I oddly don't think enough about returning a vegan lifestyle even though I do have facebook feeds from different vegan companies. I guess I have somehow just ignored it all. We can be good at ignoring things we know we should not.

I did buy the current issue of Vegnews and inside was an article of an A-Z guide to budget vegan living. Don't we all need that? It's nice to see because that is one of the complaints/reasons people don't go vegan or stop. I have taken a quick glance and there are even alternative ones to what made the list. I also noticed that some of the list is pretty common sense.

So I am hoping to kick my ass and get back on the wagon. I am also going to Boston next month so any cheap vegan eats that I should check out let me know!!