Because Nothing Says “Welcome back, Autumn” Like Pumpkin

I don’t think anybody was more excited for Autumn to get here than me. Granted, I am a little tired of those silly Tweets, Facebook statuses, Instagrams, whatever that say any variation of “Fall: hot chocolate, leaves, football, big sweaters, bonfires, pumpkins, apple cider..” etc etc. We get it: fall is here and we are all happy about it. I think F. Scott Fitzgerald said it best:

Easily one of my favorite things about the season is the return of all things pumpkin. Sadly, we vegans can’t ring in the season with the flavor of the coveted Pumpkin Spice Latte as the pumpkin mix at Starbucks has condensed milk in it. My friends have made me painfully aware of this but I am determined to have a happy season filled with pumpkin flavored things, even if it isn’t in coffee form.

Which brings me to the magic that happened in my kitchen yesterday morning:

Left to right: soy latte in my Scrabble mug, pumpkin quinoa porridge and a banana with almond butter

Let me back up for a minute and explain the reasons this brunch happened. First, I went out Friday with some friends to celebrate a birthday:

Happy birthday, Becky!

I fell into bed around 1:15 a.m. and didn’t set an alarm for Saturday morning. Normally, I get up around 8:30 a.m. on the weekends, have my usual green smoothie, go to the gym, shower and start my homework. I had so much work to do yesterday and had one of the worst days ever on Friday so I was going to treat myself to sleeping in and a leisurely but productive day. Thus, you can imagine my delight when I woke up on my own around 7:30 a.m and promptly went back to sleep. When I opened my eyes again, the sun was pouring into my room at it was 9:40 a.m. — whoops! I’m not really a proponent for sleeping in that late but I felt so energized, recharged and optimistic. It also didn’t hurt that my whole apartment smelled like fall and the windows were open, flooding my room with the crisp, breezy air. 9:40 is kind of late for breakfast by my standards and I wasn’t really feeling a green smoothie for some reason.

That’s when I remembered I had pinned this recipe for quinoa porridge from Sherrie’s cute little blog — “With Food + Love” … check it out!

The morning was perfect for something pumpkin flavored so I hopped out of bed and got cooking.

Boiling up some quinoa

Quinoa (pronounced keen wah) is one of those amazing grains seeds that we hear a lot about but some people still aren’t too awfully sure about. Here’s what you need to know:

• Quinoa is an ancient grain that has been cultivated for at least 5,000 years — dating back to when the Incas were in South America
• There are more than 120 varieties of the seed, each of which are grown on large stalks
• Quinoa packs a powerful punch of amino acids and proteins
• This nutty, fluffy seed is naturally gluten free so those who are sensitive to gluten can nosh away

This recipe was a breeze — quinoa only takes about 15 minutes to cook up and then only about five additional minutes to heat up with the pumpkin puree and almond milk. The recipe calls for almond milk but I would bet the farm that any other non-dairy alternative would be just as delicious. The recipe calls for 1.5 – 2 tablespoons of either honey or maple syrup. Honey is one of those controversial vegan items that some will argue is or isn’t vegan, depending on who you talk to. I stay away from it for personal/ethical reasons. Thus, I opted for just one tablespoon of pure maple syrup (100% pure is extremely sweet…a little bit goes a very long way). It was just the right amount!

The recipe also calls for some ginger. I added just a little bit more than the recipe called for because I really like the taste of ginger. Plus, any morning that I get to grate this root up is a good one, by my standards:

So there you have it! Pumpkin quinoa porridge and today is the first day of the season. I had this for breakfast again today and will be working on the leftovers probably until Tuesday or Wednesday, but it keeps really well in the fridge and is nice to know that I have breakfast/lunch covered for the next few days.

I’m still adjusting to this new posting schedule and I really miss checking in every day…just bear with me! You guys are excellent.

Have a restful first day of Autumn!

New posting schedule and general housekeeping

I am feeling all of the love in the world from you guys, especially after my video post yesterday. Thanks for all of the well wishes and congratulatory messages. You guys are awesome!!

When I created this blog, I set the intention to post every single day for thirty days about my reflections and challenges experiences as a vegan on a day to day basis. I stuck with that and blogged each day. Now that those first thirty days are up, I am thinking of switching things up to posting on a twice-weekly basis…what do you guys think? I have thought about it a lot and I think it will help me think about things a bit more and write more overarching, quality things. A little bit more reflection rather than a daily regurgitation of information would probably be the better thing to do, I think.

Thus, be on the lookout for posts on TUESDAYS and THURSDAYS.

I love writing and engaging with you all and I love this blog more than most things and I think this switch will yield much more high-quality content.

Talk soon (tomorrow)!

Thirty Days of Vegan [whoa.]

30 Day Eve

Y’all.

Tomorrow is thirty days.

TOMORROW IS THIRTY DAYS.

I cannot believe it is already here and I also don’t really know where the time goes. Instead of celebrating with dairy, I’ll be celebrating the end of my thirty day goal and the rest of my life as a vegan with some coconut milk ice cream and a well-planned, non-rushed dinner. And maybe wine. Definitely wine.

As a quick aside, one of my professors brought up my veganism as an example in our class discussion today. I wrote about it in a paper and he talked about my paper to the class. It was a proud moment.

So many exciting things to come tomorrow!!

 

 

4 Vegan Weeks

Happy four-week-aversary to me and being vegan!

Four weeks is generally one month but actually, today is only/already (depending on how you want to look at it) day 28 — 30 full days will be Tuesday. I still had a lot of time to think about where the last four weeks have taken me as I drove back up to school this evening. It was actually really ironic: the last time I drove back up to school, it was the first day as a vegan, also on a Sunday, four weeks ago to the date. Let’s recall that it was the day that this happened:

Beautiful people everywhere.

I spent a lot of that three-hour drive four weeks ago thinking about what I wanted to accomplish in those thirty days. I thought of all of the recipes I would try and how my life would be different in every way imaginable.

 

Fast forward four weeks, a major temperature drop and I found myself in the same car listening to the same music with four weeks of vegan under my belt. Again, I found myself thinking about the same thing: how my life has changed during the last four weeks. I was also accompanied by a delicious soy latte for the drive.

My drive brought to you by this coffee, coral pants and a delicious soy latte.

Okay, but in all seriousness again.

I did a lot of reflecting on the changes I have noticed and how my decision is impacting the entire world: animals, people around me, people I have not yet met, the environment and so many other things. I cannot fathom going back to anything dairy at this point. It’s been a delightful, interesting, amazing ride and the beautiful thing is that it is merely the start.

I will have some more insight tomorrow (obviously) but I have some fun planned for the thirty day mark on Tuesday. Get ready!