Thinking Outside Your Head

By far the best way to get exactly what you want and exactly what you think you get is cooking and preparing food from as scratch as possible. It is the healthiest way to go about life. Unfortunately, it is hard to sometimes fit into routines and it definitely is time consuming. Ever since throwing myself (arms wide open) into the consumption of the Vegan lifestyle, I’ve been constantly reminded of the time and hurdles that take place in this lifelong journey. Not that Vegetarian is any easier. It truly is, being able to eat cheese and dairy. There is not much of a challenge, nor is it truly bettering yourself or the world. Vegetarianism is the start to hopefully enlightened by the sense of what truly matters in this world.

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Nothing will benefit life more than what you put into your body. Animal products kill people and murder innocent lives, genocide-style, to feed greed. Nothing is destroying our planet more than the gluttony behind animal consumption, meat and dairy. Good for you for being Vegetarian. I hope all Vegetarians succeed over that hump and obtain that sense of what is going on. I came across this speech with a little help from The Vegan Zombie.

Gary Yourofsky Speech

Furthermore, in certain areas it is extremely difficult to live the Vegan lifestyle at a faster pace than cooking all day. I’m sometimes a lazy son of a bitch and when you don’t have motivation to prepare awesome food to refuel, you have to dig deep sometimes, you have to brainstorm, you have to think outside of your head. You can’t always trust what mom & pop restaurants put in their food, but with my experience in mom & pop Italian pizza, I just know that Italian Pizza is made from scratch as cheaply as possible. I’m talking about the dough. I’d put my life on it that all Italian pizza dough consists of flour, salt, yeast, sugar, oil and water.

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I have, since being a child, been fighting an addiction. This addiction is impossible to overcome. It is a pizza addiction. Vegan pizza is delicious, but involves preparing. I have been ordering (delivery) Vegan pizza from a ma & pa Italian Restaurant. It is a Veggie pizza without cheese. They’ve never messed up and it is awesome to have that option in my Vegan fuel arsenal. I’ve been dreaming of a Subway option that might actually fill me up. Their Veggie sub, Vegan-style, is delicious, but I need three or four to fill me up. I partook my first Subway adventure yesterday.

Before I forget, I wanna bitch about Netflix. Netflix is occasionally good, but usually bad. The selection sucks and it is dumb with its algorithms to recommend things “smartly” to watch. My favorite movie, Field of Dreams, has never been on Netflix. I recently found an awesome movie away from Netflix completely in American Flyers, also starring Kevin Costner. I have created a joke to myself and cycling about ‘going the distance’.

Field of Dreams trailer

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American Flyers trailer

It took some digging, but I did find the newest awesome cycling documentary today on Netflix. And followed by another just super interesting documentary.

Inspired to Ride trailer

The Barkley Marathons trailer

I love cycling, but I do love adventure more. Adventure gives someone unparalleled challenges. Easy things are boring. Boring is easy. Cycling adventures are my favorite.

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I hiked down to a Subway and hiked back with my sandwich. It was a footlong on toasted whole wheat bread. This sandwich consisted of just Veggies. It had lettuce, onion, tomato, olives, spinach, jalapeño, cucumber and Love.

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Doc Mustard ingredients:

  • Mustard
  • Sriracha
  • Chipotle
  • OnionP/GarlicP/Pepper
  • Ketchup

Subway Adventure ingredients:

  • Subway Vegan sandwich
  • Vegenaise
  • Doc Mustard
  • Tofurky

 Empty Veggies into bowl. Add Vegenaise & Doc Mustard and mix. Fill sandwich with Veggies and add Tofurky.

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Enjoy.

Fools Gold

I have a big weekend planned. It may not appear like a big weekend to others, but it is for me. Today, John Stamos has been recommending things for me to watch on #Netflix and I am not sure why. John Stamos has a horrible taste in movies, shows and comedies. Here are some things currently on Netflix that are NOT John Stamos approved. YouTube trailers:

Wolfcop

Avalanche Sharks

Awful Nice

Sharknado

Sharknado 2

Sharknado 3

The History of Future Folk

GOON

As long as I can stay away from Netflix today, I am needing to get things packed and get my Trek (CrossRip Elite) Darth Vader turned on, tuned up and dropped out. Tomorrow I will be riding the entire length (and then some) of the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

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I&M Canal

I&M Canal State Trail

John Husar I&M Canal Trail

And then riding back the next day. I will have to deal with a lot of wind and differences in the temperature. And among the elements of early April Illinois, I will have the ongoing challenge of maintaining my Vegan lifestyle in unknown places.

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Apologies for all the (fantastic) Links and lack of Zelda’s. Yes, I grew up playing Nintendo, but gave it up to be an adult. I have never played Xbox and the last gaming console that I’ve owned is a PS1, which was sold 10+ years ago.

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Spring will be here Monday as the true meaning of spring is the START OF the REGULAR SEASON of BASEBALL. GOCUBS! Happy Friday and do not be made a fool by John Stamos and Netflix and check out my above recommendations.

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Leonardo Meatlessburger

I do not intend to be extremely repetitive, but I love sandwiches. And finding fun ways to include sandwiches into my (Ⓥegan) lifestyle, is one of my keys to happiness.

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Dude’s gotta eat…

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And while any dude (or lady) has to eat, they might as well eat happily. While eating happily, they (you) might as well be healthily happily eating. And if you can healthily happily eat, you might as well step it up a notch or two and eat Vegetarian or Vegan to ultimately do an enormous part in saving the planet.

Fight Climate Change

Even scientists say, “eat less meat” when asked how to better the planet.

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I am not one to follow much of what takes place in the movie industry these days, but it’s impossible nowadays to ignore it. When news involves Leonardo DiCaprio, I’ll listen as Leo and I go way back to when I saw Titanic in theater at age 12, I believe. Since then, he’s truly been a favorite actor of mine. Being a true environmental activist is greater than (>) his amazing acting career and is how people with power/fame should go above themselves to try and make a true difference.

12 Celebrities

I’m gonna have to share links to my favorite Leo movies. I have to.

The Basketball Diaries

The Beach

Catch Me If You Can

The Departed

I made a good amount of (ben) Meatlessburger happiness. (The QB for the Pittsburgh Steelers is Ben Roethlisberger:). A brewery that I’ve come across with a few different beers is Half Acre out of Chicago, IL. I did not visit the Brewery (yet), just picked up a few 4-packs. I enjoyed their Pale Ale, their IPA and their Black/Dark Ale. They were all in 16 oz. cans with great decorative properties and the stuff inside is good, as well.

As far as the Meatlessburger goes, I made a gyro-style sandwich, a USA-style sandwich and an experimental chinese-style bunless Meatlessburger. And a LBⓋ (Low Budget Vegan) side… 🙂

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Ⓥzatziki Sauce ingredients:

  • Non-dairy yogurt, plain
  • Lemon, freshly juiced
  • Cucumber, deseeded and diced
  • Cumin powder
  • Garlic, freshly minced
  • SeaSalt/Pepper/BrownSugar
  • Sriracha
  • Onion, diced

Mix. And Enjoy.

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Meatlessburger ingredients:

  • Tofu, extra firmly crumbled (?:)
  • Lightlife ‘sausage’ and ‘beef’, crumbled
  • Daiya Cheddar, block diced cubes
  • Garlic, freshly minced
  • SeaSalt/Pepper/BrownSugar/GarlicP/OnionP
  • Liquid Smoke
  • Parsley, freshly chopped
  • Soy Sauce

Prep. Mix. And enjoy. Add Corn Starch if needed.

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Gyro Meatlessburger ingredients:

  • Ⓥzatziki Sauce

  • Meatlessburger, pan-fried/cast-ironed/baked/grilled
  • Cucumber, slices
  • Tomato, slices (Bushel Boy)
  • Lettuce & Spinach, freshly sliced
  • Bun, gourmet (bigger) and grilled on inside

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USA Meatlessburger ingredients:

  • Meatlessburger, pan-fried/cast-ironed/baked/grilled
  • Daiya, melted/broiled onto Meatlessburger
  • Lettuce
  • Cucumber, slices
  • Tomato, slices (Bushel Boy)
  • Onion, slices
  • Vegenaise, mmmmmm
  • Mustard
  • Mushrooms, sliced and sauteéd

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I will go over the LBV and Chinese-style bunless Meatlessburger at a later time.

Happy Leap Year Day. Is that a thing?

Vegan Tacoisms

  
I am absolutely in love with this trifecta of Tofu, Soyrizo and Tempeh. I decided to mad scientist together Taco.

  
Password is Taco.

  
Perhaps it won’t be as entertaining as Frankenstein to most or as sweet as Willy Wonka’s Chocalote Factory, but Gene, it’s wild and almost Wilder..

  
If there is a such thing as a past life or multi universe, I’d be a Mexican culinary artist with a big mustache, painting edible masterpieces on people’s plates. Garnishing with cilantro, of course.

I have decided to not do any fantasy football this year, but to do a The League marathon instead. And have THAT being my fantasy football. If you ever get a chance, FIND and WATCH Safety Not Guranteed (2012). It is an outstanding flick starring Mark Dupless and Aubrey Plaza and also produced by Mark and his brother Jay.

Safety Not Guaranteed

Has anyone seen these Chicago Cubs lately? Has anyone ever seen the Cubs dominate and click with chemistry like this club?

   
 I have made tacos in the past with store bought hard shell tortillas and they never fulfilled what I needed. I saw somewhere someone making hard shell from soft tortillas and I had to try it. I made two before even making any tacos. I also just ate them as is and they were delicious. I wanted them to open bigger so i cranked the heat and made the mistake of making four.

  
They cooked and hardened, but were basically closed. I draped all of these tortilla attempts over an oven rack and baked until golden brown.

  
I brainstormed for a minute and concluded that they need to open wider and so I made four draped over two oven rack grills. The results gave me a permi-smile.

  
I made tacos with hash browns that I had leftover uncooked from a past concoction. I also made a taco salad with the untacoable shells.

  
Ⓥegan Trifecta Taco w/ HashBrowns ingredients:

  

 HashBrowns ingredients:

  • Potato, hash brown style (homemade or store bought)
  • Onion, diced
  • Carrot, sliced halfly
  • Celery, sliced
  • Lentils/SplitPeas/BrownRice, cooked at once
  • Broth/BalsamicVinegar
  • ChipotleP/OnionP/GarlicP/SeaSalt/Pepper
  • Corn/BlackeyedPeas, canned
  • Cilantro, fresh and chopped
  • Oil

I did not have any fresh garlic or I would’ve used it.

  • Cook Rice/Lentils/SplitPeas in water seasoned with Sugar/SeaSalt/OnionP/GarlicP/Pepper, drain
  • Sauté Onion, Carrot and Celery in oil for a few minutes before adding Hash Browns and BalsamicVinegar
  • Season and add broth, simmer for a good 20 minutes
  • I did broil to add a little color.

  

    Ⓥegan Trifecta ingredients:

    • Soyrizo
    • Tempeh, diced
    • Tofu, crumbled
    • Lentils/SplitPeas/BrownRice, cooked
    • Corn/BlackeyedPeas, canned
    • Onion, diced
    • Celery, diced
    • Broth/Sriracha/BalsamicVinegar/Honey
    • CajunSeasoning/Cayenne/ChiliP/Oregano/NutritionalYeast/Cumin/Paprika
    • Oil
    • Cilantro, fresh and chopped

    Break Dances:

    • Sauté Onion and Celery in oil before adding Tempeh and Soyrizo. Sauté for 7 minutes and add Sriracha/Balsamic and seasonings get hot add Broth, Tofu and Honey stir and cover simmering for 12-15 minutes.

    Other ingredients:

    • Tortilla, hardened by baking
    • Lettuce, Iceberg and chopped
    • Tomato, diced
    • Onion, diced
    • Cilantro, fresh and chopped
    • Vegenaise, mmmm

      

      Taco Construction:

      • When everything is prepared awaiting your constructing, life is good.
      • Construct how you think is best!
      • Same with the Taco Salad!
      • Enjoy and have a good week! Cheers 🙂