August PDX Restaurant: The Whole Bowl

August's restaurant (and our lunch after the Underground Tour) was actually a food cart, The Whole Bowl. They have multiple locations, but we went to the downtown spot, where it's part of a whole block of food carts, between 9th and 10th and Alder and Washington.

Website

Genre: Bowls

Price: $5.50 (small), $6.00 (large)

Setting: Food cart

What we tried: The only thing they have, of course! I got the small and Abe got the large. 

The bowl is a rice/beans dish, along the lines of Cafe Yumm's main product. Though fully customizable, by default it contains rice, beans, avocado, salsa, olives, sour cream, cheddar, cilantro, and a special sauce. It's all vegetarian, and can be made vegan depending on what you leave off. 

I got mine without avocado or sour cream, because those things are gross, but kept everything else (so I supposed I cheated for purposes of this project, it wasn't fully vegan - but you can get it vegan!). Abe got everything on his.

Overall impression: 

It's fine. It's not really particularly unique - Cafe Yumm and plenty of other restaurants have a similar bowl, either as a primary or one of their options. The sauce is good, but also something along the same lines as other places have. But if you're looking for something at the food carts, it's certainly a healthy, tasty, and veganizable option. 

For this particular location, the food cart block doesn't have much seating, so the best bet for eating is probably what we did, going kitty-corner to O'Bryant Square. 

Would I take my parents?*: Probably not. My mom might like it, but I don't think my dad would care for it at all.

*Scale: Heck no. No. Probably not. Maybe. Eh, yeah. Yes. Definitely. 

Bonus: After lunch, since we'd taken the MAX into downtown, we realized we were walking near Blue Star Donuts, so decided to pop in to try a couple. If you're in downtown and wanting the Portland donut experience, I'd probably recommend this over Voodoo (while Voodoo donuts are very good, they're not worth the line that's at the main location 24/7 - I went there once as part of a bachelorette party, and we were in line for like an hour at 2 am; but I'd recommend over either, the NE Voodoo locations, as I think I like their donuts better but there's rarely a significant line there (from my experience and what I've heard)). 

Blue Star is a more artisan vibe, while Voodoo is a more hipster vibe, and I think that's reflected in their taste, if that makes any sense. Voodoo tastes more like junk food than a treat, which is proper, I believe, in a donut.

Toastmasters: Meatless Monday

The second-to-last speech in the first Toastmasters manual is called "persuade with power". The goal is to use both logic and emotion to appeal to the audience to support a given position. 

Vegetarianism a topic I'm passionate about, but I thought promoting that might be taking it too far - not everyone wants to give up meat. Instead, I thought I'd go that direction but scale it back, promoting just meatless Monday, or the concept of not having meat with every meal. It actually went really well and I got a much more receptive response than I expected. Since it's a topic I frequently read about and discuss, it was much easier than usual for me to reduce reliance on my notes, which was a big help in using more hand gestures and speaking more slowly and clearly. 

It turns out lots of people in the group already having one or a few meals without meat each week! Largely due to health concerns, than the other issues, but that's still a great start! I picked the order of the reasons to support meatless Monday - environment, personal health, money - thinking that each one hits successively closer to home, so the last one (often remembered the best) would be the one that felt the most important. I think there's some truth in that, but clearly the health issue was really the biggest concern within this group.

Speech title: One Meal, Many Benefits

Imagine: what if you could take one small action each week, one small change to your routine that would help the environment, improve your health, and save you money? All you’d have to do is follow the “Meatless Monday” trend, making one meal a week meat-free.

While a general idea that’s been around for millenia (for exaple, within the Catholic church), the specific movement of going meat-free for one meal a week, was started most notably in 2003; it’s since grown and is promoted in 36 countries, including many schools. Even Portland recently took on the task of promoting meatless Monday in a Climate Action Plan earlier this summer. 

What does Meatless Monday have to do with climate change? Livestock is actually one of the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases, with each cow producing 250 to 500 liters of methane each day, which as a greenhouse gas is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Raising animals also requires much more in resources than plant-based food sources. For example, a pound of beef requires about 1,850 gallons of water, compared to 39 gallons needed to produce a pound of vegetables. It’s just becomes an extremely inefficient use of all inputs - it takes 25 calories of fossil fuel to produce each calorie of meat, compared to 2 calories to produce each calorie of plants.  

Eating less animal products is not just better for the earth’s health, but also for your own health. Vegetables and fruits are crucial in preventing many problematic health conditions, including heart disease and strokes, cancer risk, and diabetes. Also, as obesity rises and few Americans are struggling to fit in sufficient calories in their diet, eating the same volume of plant foods rather than meat will be fewer calories, helping aid fat loss. There’s more fiber and many other nutrients to be found in plants, making them a healthier use of your calories. It’s also, oftentimes, cheaper to buy vegetarian food choices.

Now, there are exceptions, primarily with industries that are being subsidized by the government which shows an artificially reduced market price, and I’m not talking about heavily processed foods, which are going to be cheap no matter what - hot dogs, hamburgers. Buying lots of fresh produce can appear expensive, but so it good quality meat! If you move away from processed foods altogether, you can’t get much cheaper than buying dried beans from the bulk bins! An excellent source of protein and complex carbs, beans are an awesome foundation to any vegetarian meal. Nuts and other grains like quinoa can also be found for reasonable prices, especially in bulk, to make healthy, plant-based dishes. 

All of these benefits - the environment, your health, and money - should be a great reason to reduce your meat consumption. I know food is a personal choice, guided by cultural norms - but our culture is moving more and more towards celebrating the benefits of going meatless. I’m not asking you to give up anything. Just think about changing on meal, Monday’s dinner, to go meatless. Do it for your wallet, do it for the cows, do it for mother earth. Just take the one small step.

March PDX Veg Restaurant: Van Hahn

Van Hahn is a Vietnamese restaurant, all vegetarian (and mostly vegan, but not all, in my understanding), run as a nonprofit by a Buddhist temple. They have tofu options plus a variety of mock meats. It's in SE on Division, just a little west of 205, so we met up with a couple friends, L and J, who live in that part of town, for lunch on Sunday.

Website None, but Happy Cow has some menu photos. 

Genre: Vietnamese

Price: Drinks/appetizers $1.99 - $3.99, entrees $7.99 - $8.50, desserts $2.99

Setting: It's a casual setup, in a former house; the eat-in area is fairly small, I think maybe 5 or 6 tables. There's also a deck that appears to offer outdoor seating in nice weather (unlike the day we were there, with a ridiculous windstorm!)

What we tried: J and I both got the broccoli, me with tofu, him the combo (all the mock meats). He also got the pickled lemonade. L got the green beans with tofu. Abe got the special noodles (banh hoi), and a taro smoothie.

The taro smoothie was amazing! I liked my entree too. Served with rice, it was just broccoli and tofu in a sweet-ish sauce, a simply but satisfying stir fry.

The mock meats were... interesting. Honestly, in my haven't-tasted-meat-in-15-years opinion, they are really quite similar in texture and appearance to the real thing. Not so much you couldn't readily tell the difference, but at a glance or first bite, a satisfactory substitute. If, that is, you want a substitute and to feel like you're eating meat. I do not. But if you're an omnivore that wants to cut back, or transitioning into a vegetarian diet, these are probably a very good option. They were close enough, for my senses, though, to be a bit freaky.

Overall impression: 

The food was good. I don't know if I'd say it's spectacularly better than any other Asian restaurant, but it was good. The mock meats were of a high caliber, if that's something that appeals to you.

I really appreciate and want to support their mission, both the non-profit/temple connection and being exclusively vegetarian. And what I've read from multiple sources online is that the people working in the restaurant are volunteers from the temple. So to truly complain about their service seems extremely rude and disrespectful. 

But, there were difficulties with the service. We had to flag someone down (or even go to the kitchen doorway) to get their attention to order, get boxes, and get the check. At no point did they refill our water, or check on how things were. The server didn't speak fluent English, so asking for additional information about anything was hard, and some of the descriptions on the menu weren't quite complete or consistent (for example, some items said "mock pork", others just said "pork" - we were fairly sure there wasn't any actual meat in the restaurant, but it'd have been nice for everything to be labeled as such). 

I understand that running a successful business isn't their goal, so quality customer service might not seem crucial; but it seems to be that having better customer service would help them promote their mission, and still be worth investing in. I don't think I would ever eat in again, but would certainly be open to getting take-out if I were nearby.

Would I take my parents?*: No. Any Asian food genres aren't really their thing, combined with the service-related issues, it wouldn't be a comfortable place for them. 

*Scale: Heck no. No. Probably not. Maybe. Eh, yeah. Yes. Definitely. 

February PDX Veg Restaurant: Curry Leaf

My FIL offered to take us out to dinner last weekend to celebrate my birthday, and I thought about suggesting Swagat, as that's oddly becoming one of my favorites, but we were just there on my actual birthday. Instead, still in the mood for Indian food, we figured it would be a good chance to try the Indian restaurant on our list for the year: Curry Leaf. It's not all vegan - there are a fair number of cheese based items in this genre - but it is all vegetarian, and many that aren't inherently vegan have the option to be modified to be. (And since we were with my FIL, I felt too conspicuous to take pictures, but Indian food isn't all that photogenic, anyway.)

Website

Genre: Indian

Price: $4 (some appetizers and soups) to $13. Most entrees $10 to $11. 

Setting: Casual dine-in, located on the edge of a shopping center in NW (Bethany area). Their website says it's a combo with a grocery store; I didn't see any grocery store goods (but the restaurant was to one side from a corner entrance, maybe if you went down the other side it was down there?), but it did have that combined store/restaurant, sort of deli-like atmosphere. 

What we tried: 

Sadly they were out of the onion pakora that I initially ordered, so instead tried gobi manchurian bites, which are battered and fried cauliflower, covered in a spicy sauce. Without the sauce, I think I would have liked these (then it would have essentially been pakora, which I love - deep fried foods while you'll also eating veggies, what's not to love?), but the sauce was too spicy for my tastes. We also had some masal vada, which were fine.

For entrees, I had the masala dosa, Abe had the spinach dosa, and FIL had the vegetable kurma. The dosas were huge! Like, maybe 2 feet across (at Swagat, I think they're closer to 18" wide). I tried both dosas, and like the dosa part, but the filling was also spicier than I'm used to. 

Granted I have limited exposure to this type of food to compare it to, but I thought all of the foods here were spicier, which for some people might be good but isn't to me. Combined with the rest of the experience, not impressed.

Overall impression: 

The food tasted fine (albeit spicy), but the service was not great. When not ready to order when first ask, the guy acted annoyed, and after that the service was really really slow. At one point we were clearly done eating and waiting for boxes and the check, and both the servers (owners?) were standing within eyesight chatting with someone (not a customer), paying no attention to us. 

I presume it's a family business, which I would like to support, and I understand that means they might not have as consistent standards and policies as a larger place might. But a family business is still a business, and needs to be run as such! Chatting to friends or family members who stopped by doesn't excuse you from paying attention to paying customers. 

If we lived in that part of town and it was the closest Indian restaurant, I might be willing to stop by for take-out, but when we have an Indian restaurant closer to home (Swagat) at which we've always had both great food and excellent service, I don't foresee coming back here, even for the sake of supporting a vegetarian restaurant or local family business. 

Would I take my parents?*: Heck no. I've been trying to talk my parents into going to Swagat, and I think I will take them there next time they're in town, but Swagat provides a good enough overall experience to offset the potential discomfort that they might have with unfamiliar foods. A poor restaurant experience plus food they might not like simply isn't something I'll ask them to subject themselves to. 

*Scale: Heck no. No. Probably not. Maybe. Eh, yeah. Yes. Definitely. 

The Vegetarian's Dilemma: Eating at Omnivore Restaurants

I've often said I have the palate of a 10-year-old, so I'm never been one to try out lots of new restaurants. I like what I like, and go to the same handful of places, and order the same things at each place. 

I've had to branch out a bit more lately, both in self-imposed goals, and because of the influence and expectations of others in my life. Abe is definitely one who loves exploring new restaurants and flavors. His mom is also that way, but not only does she enjoy seeking out new restaurants, but she's very much into seeking out upscale restaurants.

Personally, even aside from the main issue I'm about to bring up, I don't think these fancy restaurants are worth the price. I guess the plates look pretty, and the food tastes good, but it doesn't taste proportionally better than food at lower price points. It doesn't have a value I would consider worth spending extra cash on. But, her money, if she wants to spend it at ritzy places and invite us along, that's her choice.

However, these upscale restaurants - even in a liberal hub like Portland - tend to have extremely limited vegetarian, much less vegan, options. There are some upscale veg restaurants (and especially as I think I'm going to set a goal for 2015 to try new vegan restaurants each month, I'll probably do what I can to push the group consensus in such directions as much as possible), but ultimately when it's her treat it's her decision, and it's often also influenced by location (e.g., when we're going out to dinner before a show).

There's been at least one place that literally had nothing vegetarian on the menu. Sure, since they're so fancy, you can just ask the chef to make something for you, or they'll willingly adapt something on the menu to make it vegetarian, but it still makes me uncomfortable that they don't think our patronage is important enough to deliberately set forth options, that meet their standards, on their menu in the first place. 

On the other hand, maybe they simply haven't had enough business by vegetarians to warrant investing in such options, and they need to have customers to ask for that in order for it to become economically feasible.

I'm not saying this isn't a problem at more budget-priced restaurants, but in my experience the more "family restaurant" style a place is, the more likely it actually does have vegetarian option. Something about the fancy places seems to have an ingrained concept that dishes must have meat to have merit.

Which do you think is better economic activism: rewarding restaurants who already provide numerous veg options, or pushing the request at restaurants who don't?

My Thanksgiving Turkey

No, I haven't changed my mind since yesterday to eat a turkey. I "adopted" a turkey!

Meet Turpentine: 

Farm Sanctuary, a farm animal rescue and advocacy organization, is doing their annual "adopt a turkey" fundraiser. In exchange for your donation to the non-profit organization, you receive a cute certificate and photo of the turkey you choose to adopt.

Did you know [source]:

• Researchers have identified 30 distinct vocal sounds in turkeys.
• Turkeys recognize each other by their unique voices.
• Turkeys form strong social bonds that can last a lifetime.
• Turkey's heads change color depending on their mood.
• Possessing superb geographic skills, turkeys can mentally map up to 1,000 acres.
• More than 46 million turkeys are killed each year for Thanksgiving alone.

You know what most of those facts remind me of? My own cats, the pets that are part of my household and my family, and whom I lovingly care for and protect. They - cats and turkeys - may not be capable of human intelligence, but they are nonetheless smart, beautiful creatures who are capable of loving and being loved.

Maybe, instead of basting a turkey tomorrow, you'll consider adopting Turpentine, Gable, Anna, Tibbott, Elsa, Cecelia, or Martha.

Thanksgiving: The Veg Entree Dilemma

In large part, I can't complain about holiday meals - especially Thanksgiving - even though I'm vegetarian. Rolls, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie. On Christmas, add in cookies of many varieties. All vegetarian, all things I love.

However, even if it's just a handful of days a year, it's not exactly ideal to have a meal totally comprised of refined carbs. So what to bring as an alternative to the main dish?

For a while, I always brought Tofurkey. My mom always had some, and even my dad would put some on his plate and at least pretend to tolerate it; but the extended family was significantly less enthusiastic. I'm actually not a a huge fan of it myself - I mean, it's ok, especially with ketchup, but it's by no means the most delicious thing ever.

I also really don't like the idea of pretending to eat meat, or something that's overtly trying to take the place of meat. I want a less-carby entree, sure, but utilizing products like a Tofurkey just makes you a party to reinforcing the concept that a main dish is "supposed" to be meat-based. I'd also really like to introduce the omnivores I love to meatless entrees that don't scream that they're vegetarian, so eventually I started branching out into other dishes to bring for my veggie contribution.

2011: A rice-stuffed squash. I can't find the exact recipe I used, but it was less a recipe than just instructions to assemble a boxed rice mix into a scooped out squash. 

2012: Maple coconut baked tofu

2013: My contribution was in desserts (nanaimo bars), but we had Thanksgiving day with Abe's family which mostly leans at least flexitarian, so there was actually a Tofurkey as a main part of the meal, which more than just me partook in!

2014: We're planning to make this kale salad. I think the cranberries will make it nice and festive, and despite being kale I think most of the relatives there will at least be willing to try it. :)

What's your favorite non-meat holiday dish?

WIAW: Forming New Habits

I'm trying to both lose weight and eat healthier. I sometimes calorie count (pegatha47 on MFP), but mostly right now I'm focusing on eating sufficient protein (minimum of 55.5 grams - 0.8 grams per kg - based on my weight, but should probably aim for more like 70 grams - 1.0 grams per kg - considering that I'm moderately active) and a minimum of 5 fruits and veggies per day.

Breakfast: 
Smoothie - 1 ¹/₂ cups fresh spinach, 1 banana, ³/₄ cup mixed frozen berries, 1 ¹/₂ Tbsp peanut butter, 1 ¹/₂ Tbsp ground flax seed, ³/₄ cup water
Hi-Ball energy drink - it's sparkling water with flavor, caffeine, and some vitamins. 

Although it takes a couple more minutes in the morning (and looks a little gross from the oxidized banana by the time I get to work and actually eat it), I love that having a smoothie for breakfast automatically gets half of my fruits and veggies in for the day first thing.

Protein grams: 10
Produce count: 3

Lunch: 
Near East roasted garlic and olive oil pasta with tomatoes and spinach
Salad of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, pomegranate arils, and half a green pepper

I could probably just make noodles and add olive oil and some spices to get the same result, but the Near East pasta mix is fantastic. I've been experimenting with adding things: tomatoes obviously go well, and this week I added spinach, too, since I have it on hand for smoothies. To bump up the protein, I bet baked tofu marinated in Italian dressing would mesh with it.

Protein grams: 11
Produce count: 3

Snacks
Chocolate covered almonds (from Costco) - x2, because a serving is only 11 almonds! That's crazy, and not nearly enough chocolate in one serving.

String cheese, apple, pomegranate green tea
 
Protein grams: 13
Produce count: 1

Dinner: 

Amy's 4-cheese pizza, the other half of the green pepper, rolos

Protein grams: 20
Produce count: 1

Total: 

Protein grams: 54 - Barely an acceptable amount. I definitely could have added protein to lunch by including tofu or beans in the pasta dish. I've tried to think of a way to increase the protein in my smoothie without using a protein powder, but I'm not sure how beyond just adding more peanut butter. 

Produce count: 8 - Wow! I assure you, this isn't typical. It's the ideal I'm striving for, but it does take some effort and planning, and definitely doesn't happen every day.

Anyone have a great protein smoothie recipe sans protein powder? 

Doctor Who Game Night Birthday Party

My standard party/get-together/method of entertaining is a game night. Which is always fun! But lately I've started mixing up the usual food (pizza, chips, veggies, hummus or dip, fruit, dessert) with some sort of theme. Last year, I did a "Margaret" theme (margaritas and margherita) for my birthday. This year, given that I'm entering the last year of a decade, I thought a timey wimey, Doctor Who theme would be appropriate.

Drinks

The Tenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver: Half ounce each of blood orange vodka and blue curacao. Fill half of the rest of the way with sprite/7-up, and the rest of the glass with sparkling water. (I first tried with just the sprite, but even my sweet tooth found it almost too sweet. Half and half for the sparkling liquids seemed to do the trick). [Inspiration]

The Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver: Limeade. I figured one alcoholic drink was sufficient, so this was the best green drink I could think of.

Doctor (Who) Pepper: For anyone tired of citrus from the other drinks. At one point, Abe also mixed a drink with Dr. Pepper and blue curacao - it turned a beautiful deep green color!

Food

Lady Cassandra pizza: Dough, sauce, mozzarella cheese, sliced olives for eyes, and tomato slices for a mouth. [Inspiration] 

Bow ties are cool pasta salad: Farfalle pasta, tofu, chickpeas, and garlic vinaigrette. [Recipe]

I want chips: British chips, that is - fries. Sliced potatoes, olive oil, seasoning. Baked for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees. [Scene]

Tardis blue corn chips

Exploded Slitheen: Broccoli dip [Scene] [Recipe]

Always take a banana to a party [Scene]

Stupid old satsumas [Scene]

The best dessert in the universe: Nanaimo bars - these were in the freezer from Christmas time, and, well, they're delicious, so I found a way to fit them into the theme! [Recipe]

Adipose: Dandies vegan marshmallows, stuck together with a paste of powdered sugar and water, with the faces drawn on with black gel frosting. [Inspiration]

Fish sticks and custard: Sugar cookies (from purchased refrigerated dough, cut in half and rolled into fish stick shape), rolled in graham cracker crumbs for the "breading", with vanilla pudding. [Inspiration]

Fezzes are cool: Rolos. So either I was looking in the wrong place, or it's actually rare to find them in the red wrappers. I actually didn't find any, of any color, in the regular candy aisle. Instead I had to buy a bag of Valentine rolos in red, pink, and gold to get some red ones. [Inspiration]

Acronym Mashup: NaBloPoMo + WIAW

NaBloPoMo prompt: Name five things inside your refrigerator right now and how you feel about them.

1. Hi-Ball natural energy drinks: This is my morning caffeine source. When I'm trying to be "good" about my diet (for economic, environmental, and health reasons) I drink tea, and when I'm not trying at all I drink pop. But this is the middle ground that I usually do instead of either extreme. Typically this is combined with a Luna bar for breakfast, but today there was a firm meeting first thing in the morning with refreshments, so I had a half a donut and half a bagel, saving the Luna bar for a snack later on in the day.

2. Homemade pad see ew: One of my absolute current favorite foods for the past few years has been Oswego Noodles - a slight variation on pad see ew at a Thai restaurant near my work. Following the firm meeting, my tax team had lunch there today. One of my 30 Before 30 goals is to make a homemade version that's just as good. These leftovers are from the latest attempt by Abe and me on Sunday. Still not there yet, but it was a good dish.

3. Celery: This is a hit-or-miss food for me. At the moment it doesn't sound good, but I've gotten a head of celery in my past two produce boxes and need to use it up. Abe wanted to add it to the pad see ew, but I refused - it would have changed the whole flavor of the dish - for the worst, in my opinion.

4. Carrots: I actually had some with my pizza for dinner tonight! After a long day (stayed late at work to prepare for a presentation I have tomorrow), I really wanted a comfort food, and normally I'm all about giving into those sorts of desires. But, I know I need to work on making more veggies a habit, so adding them as a side dish is a step in the right direction.

5. Bonne Maman jam: I don't know how it's so much better than any other kind, but this brand of jam/preserves is ridiculously good. Planning on some on toast, along with a cuties orange, for a snack before I got to bed.

14 Years Vegetarian, And Why Is Vegan So Hard?

Nearly every year as I approach the day I became a vegetarian my freshman year of high school, I consider going completely vegan. One year I even had a "mac & cheese mardi gras" on September 24 to celebrate the start of a new era. I really do believe in the concept of being vegan. The reasons I'm vegetarian apply just as well to going vegan. I want to want to be vegan.

But something about it is difficult. That's why I focus on making the change on this date. I have a bit of an obsession about making things happen for precise periods of time. For example, 60 or 70 years from now, I'd like to die on my birthday, and thus have lived for exactly, say, 92 years. If Abe and I get married, I want it to take place on the 27th of a month, because we started dating on January 27. (He's cool with that - he'd like March 27, because 3 cubed is 27, but that's in the middle of tax season, so not really feasible. No, we're not engaged, just in that "talking about the future in a way that assumes it will happen eventually" phase.) So grabbing onto this anniversary is a way that I think will give it a little shove further into the realm of possibility.

Going vegetarian was pretty easy. Part of the decision was actually the realization that I'd hardly had any meat over the previous month or so anyway. My favorite foods just never really included any meat. (The only thing that sort of fell in the category of favorite was Arby's roast beef sandwiches. I'm quite sure I'll never eat meat again, but if I did, that's what I'd break the vegetarianism with.) My comfort foods have always included, however, a lot of dairy products. Pizza. Ice cream. Grilled cheese. Mac & cheese.

There's also the social aspect of it. Vegetarian is pretty easy to do at restaurants; there might not be very many options to choose from, but there's pretty much always something on the menu. But restaurant vegetarian options are usually cheese- or egg-based: pizza, omelet, etc. Portland itself has a lot of vegan restaurants, but I live out in the suburbs, plus I don't have many vegetarian, much less vegan, friends. Abe's flexitarian, and my friend Jessica is omnivore but enjoys trying vegan fare like Native Foods and Veggie Grill, but otherwise eating out-as-socializing requires going to more mainstream venues.

Where to go from here? I think the keys will be education and community.

Education 

I need to continue trying new foods. Abe is helpful with this! "Try a bite of this vegetable and then I'll tell you what it is." 

I need to learn more cooking techniques. Cooking is a long and tedious process for me, always double checking recipes and looking up terms and methods along the way. 

Even chopping veggies seems to take a long time. People have tried to show me knife skills, and how to move the knife efficiently in a way that it doesn't fully lift up from the cutting board, but that just felt so awkward and uncomfortable to me. Finally, Abe and I realized recently that it's because of my height - that method requires holding your hand and wrist above what you're cutting, but for me holding my wrist at a comfortable place puts it right at the level of the counter itself. Standing on a stool raises my hand high enough to chop efficiently.

Community

I joined a Portland-area vegan meetup group several years ago, but have only gone to one event. I'm also a member of NW Veg, but only sporadically participate. I want to get more involved with those groups, and seek out other ways to meet vegans. Veganism is never going to feel effortless if it seems odd and unusual compared to my social context. I've been thinking of looking for a book club, there's got to be a vegan-oriented one somewhere in Portland. 

How do you handle making lifestyle changes that you believe in but are difficult logistically?

WIAW: Long Run Day

Here's what I ate last Sunday, which started with a 14 mile run (just over 3 hours).

Pre-run breakfast: Telera roll with Happy Cow cheese, HiBall energy drink Running fuel: Water in my hydration vest, caffeinated ShotBloks, Honey Stinger chews Post-run: Coco Hydro (dehydrated/powdered flavored coconut water - cheaper and less packaging than regular coconut water), banana - I'm still getting used to the flavor of coconut water, but it's growing on me! Lunch: Papa Murphy's pizza, carrots, Odwalla juice
After recently sending Abe to pick up pizza for dinner without explicit enough instructions, I realized this is a pretty good veggie combo - spinach, tomatoes, and pineapple (previously just pineapple was my go-to). 
I've generally been trying to avoid drinking calories - healthy beverage or not - but also started liking these types of juices, so have started routinely having them as a treat/re-fueling on long run days. Snack: Otter Pops! HFCS may be the second ingredient, but they're only 15 calories each and delicious on a summary day.

Dinner: Near East roasted garlic and olive oil pasta with tomatoes and zucchini sauteed in olive oil, string cheese Dessert: Ice cream - Why does Breyers label this as "Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry" instead of neapolitan? 
This probably seems like a lot of food - it is a lot of calories for me (about 2,400), but I burned about 1,400 running! I've only recently started trying to calorie count, and I'm definitely not disciplined about it so I can't really talk about what I "usually" do, but in theory I'm trying to set a base calorie amount that assumes a moderate amount (30 - 40 minutes) of daily exercise that will facilitate a pound or so of weight loss per week, and when I exercise longer than that eat back about half of the calories burned. With that plan, I still went over a little (still experimenting with that base amount, but it should probably be in the 1,400 - 1,500 range, which means I replaced about 2/3 of the calories from the long run), but not horribly so.

What I Ate Wednesday

When I saw Abe after doing my long run on Friday, he asked if I'd eaten enough to replace the  calories. Ha! Not a problem. I am plenty hungry after even a medium-distance run, combined with my usual overeating that's led me to be overweight, so fueling with sufficient calories really isn't a problem. At least after a 2 hour run I can easily justify cookies or ice cream that I would eat anyways. Fueling with the most nutritious calories, and balancing proper fueling with weight loss is more of a challenge. 

Today wasn't a strenuous workout (just a short run and strength training), but I did 6 miles last night, so that carried over to a bit more hunger than usual today and more snacking.

Breakfast: Luna Bar, apple, Hi Ball energy drink
Morning snack: Back to Nature crackers and mixed nuts

Lunch: Pad see ew with tofu (homemade with Abe last weekend), key lime shortbread cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (also made with Abe last weekend) (they might have looked more appetizing if not made with whole wheat flour)
Does anyone know where to buy the really wide (like, an inch across) rice noodles that Thai restaurants use in pad see ew? We've looked at two Asian grocery stores (H Mart and Uwajimaya) and the ethnic foods section of three regular grocery stores, and can't find them anywhere! These 1/4-inch-ish ones were the widest we could get.
Afternoon snack: another Luna Bar, pomegranate raspberry green tea
Pre-workout snack: string cheese, Pop Chips
Dinner: LightLife veggie dog, Pop Chips, carrots

Dessert: A couple sugar cookies

WIAW: Margarita & Margherita Birthday

Today I thought I'd showcase the treats from my birthday party/game night last weekend. I didn't go all-vegan, but it was fully vegetarian. In the past I've often had Papa Murphy's pizza at my game nights and acquiesced to buying a pizza with meat, but that's as far as I'll go in terms of preparing or serving meat for anyone. Out of 8 people, there was one other vegetarian (who I was sure was vegan, I guess just because I met her at a NW Veg event, but turns out she isn't), and another friend who's omnivore but tends towards vegetarian and vegan food.

Margaret's Margarita & Margherita Birthday Game Night

(I did have photos in here at one point, and then I was trying to organize my google+ photo albums, and didn't realize that if I had uploaded something directly from google+ to this post, deleting it there would delete it here. I've also changed phones since then, and am having technical difficulties trying to access photos on the old phone.)

Beverages: Margaritas made with Stirrings natural margarita mix, Santa Cruz organic lemonade, and whatever tequila was middle-of-the-road at the liquor store (and virgin margaritas with just the mix and lemonade, since 25% of my guests were pregnant - makes me feel old that my close friends are having babies).
Snacks: 

• Beet dip - I think everyone tried it, and a few people enjoyed it
• King Harvest hummus
• Food Should Taste Good multigrain and blue corn tortilla chips
• Chocolate- and yogurt-covered almonds
• Grapes and mini oranges (Aren't those so cute!? They're only about an inch in diameter.)
• Bell peppers, carrots, celery

Dinner: Semi-homemade margherita pizza. I used a Pillsbury thin crust, canned tomato sauce (that was seasoned with just garlic, salt, and pepper - I don't recommend using a "pizza sauce" that has additional seasonings for margherita, as it will overwhelm the basil), roma tomatoes, basil, and shredded mozzarella cheese. I also made a vegan version with Daiya shredded mozzarella style.

One of my friends, who arrived later in the evening, and who is not by any means veg, tried the vegan version without knowing what it was, and she even thought it was good! The Deiya is a little... gooey... I'd say, and definitely doesn't taste or smell great straight out of the bag, but it does melt well, and makes a decent substitute for baking.

Dessert fail: I bought a vegan chocolate mousse cake from Whole Foods but forgot to serve it. The sad thing is that this isn't the first birthday party I've hosted and forgotten to serve the cake - if I don't put it out with the rest of the food at the beginning, I get distracted with games and fun conversation, and it doesn't cross my mind to interrupt at some point and serve cake.

So, I guess I'll just be eating it all myself for a while. What a sacrifice.

What I Ate Wednesday

Nothing terribly exciting, but sharing it anyways. :)
(I did have photos in here at one point, and then I was trying to organize my google+ photo albums, and didn't realize that if I had uploaded something directly from google+ to this post, deleting it there would delete it here. I've also changed phones since then, and am having technical difficulties trying to access photos on the old phone. The photos weren't that exciting anyway.)
Breakfast: Luna bar, HiBall

Morning snack: A few Food Should Taste Good chips (sadly, the bag I had left at work was much more empty than I realized, otherwise I would have brought more) with beet dip (a new batch I made this weekend, the original batch is long since eaten up! I put some of it in the freezer this time, to see how it'll fare.), tea with raw sugar

Lunch: "Westwood pasta" (leftovers from a client lunch yesterday at a restaurant that's basically a steakhouse) - pasta in a white wine sauce with garlic, tomatoes (well, there were tomatoes in it yesterday), basil, spinach, feta, and parmesan. It was supposed to come with chicken, but easy to ask for that to be left off to make a vegetarian entree.
Snack: Orange

Dinner: Amy's 4-cheese pizza (shown + one more slice), salad with pomegranate

Dessert: Julie's peppermint ice cream

What I Ate Wednesday: Busy Season Begins

Well, it's officially tax season. At the end of Wednesday, I've already worked 30 hours for the week. For the most part the busy season ramps up a little more gradually, as companies use the beginning of January to wrap up their accounting for the year, but one of my larger clients has an October year end so the tax return is due next week on January 15. (Whereas calendar year tax returns are due either March 15 (corporations) or April 15 (partnerships, trusts, and individuals).)
(I did have photos in here at one point, and then I was trying to organize my google+ photo albums, and didn't realize that if I had uploaded something directly from google+ to this post, deleting it there would delete it here. I've also changed phones since then, and am having technical difficulties trying to access photos on the old phone. The photos weren't that exciting anyway.)

Breakfast: Luna bar, string cheese, HiBall energy drink (didn't end up eating the apple until later in the day)
Lunch: Annie's Penne with Alfredo Sauce, salad with pomegranate arils, diet coke

Afternoon snacks: Aforementioned apple, sugar cookie
Working "dinner": Another Luna bar, banana

Dinner/snack: Oriental flavor Top Ramen
As implied above, I've been averaging 10-hour days (usually about 8:30 am to 7:00 pm with a short lunch break). When I get closer to 11-hour days, I try to be more deliberate about having foods around for a more legitimate dinner while I'm working, and just have a snack when I get home.
Any suggestions for easy office foods, either packaged or quick to prepare ahead of time and heat up? (We do have fridges and microwaves.) In the past I've tended to rely a lot on Luna bars and fruit leather.

What I Ate Wednesday

Dang, I thought I was eating vegan today! But then it occurred to me to check some labels, and the Near East pasta and the chili both have milk ingredients. Now that I think about it, the pasta sauce does seem too creamy to not have milk, but I really don't know why it's in the chili. It's the last ingredient, too, so what is it even contributing? Let's call today's food quasi-vegan, since at least the only animal products were de minimis, and not the focus of any dish.
(I did have photos in here at one point, and then I was trying to organize my google+ photo albums, and didn't realize that if I had uploaded something directly from google+ to this post, deleting it there would delete it here. I've also changed phones since then, and am having technical difficulties trying to access photos on the old phone. The photos weren't that exciting anyway.)

Breakfast: No surprise - Luna bar, banana, diet coke
Lunch: Near East pasta with tomatoes, green pepper, carrots, diet coke

Afternoon snack: Satsuma orange

Pre-run snack: Pop chips (original flavor) and an Uncle Eddies vegan peanut butter chocolate chip cookie

Dinner: Yam with Earth Balance, vegetarian chili, and steamed broccoli with nutritional yeast
Plus a few more chips and another cookie for dessert.