englandsword

On Friday I had a super fun audition and then I got a surprise last-minute free ticket to see Gospel According to First Squad by the Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble, starring the two guys who host the Inside Acting podcast that I listen to. It was great, and all of the acting was phenomenal. I feel like usually when you see a play you find one or two people whose work you like but in this play I couldn't decide who I liked most and I kept changing my mind. Most of the characters were written to be somewhat unlikeable, conflicted people, all of whom are stuck in a terrible situation. The actors helped make the characters multi-dimensional and relatable. If you're in LA, check out their closing weekend next week! On Saturday right before I was leaving for class my friend called me asking if I wanted to go to the Artivist Film Festival closing night awards ceremony and red carpet event that night. I just threw a dress and heels in my bag and went to my improv class and changed in the...

I've been out of the house so often that I want to make more easily transportable snacks. I love jerky so I decided to try making some tofu jerky in my dehydrator! I bought a few packages of tofu at TJ's: Sliced them up and coated them with Bragg's, ketchup, garlic powder, paprika, and a little apple cider vinegar. I let them marinate for about an hour and then dehydrated them for about eight hours. They taste delicious! But next time I'm going to slice it thinner (I didn't know how much it would shrink down - not that much, actually) and try and make it BBQ flavored. What it really tastes like, actually, is fried tofu. I would definitely recommend dehydrating your tofu instead of frying it! Exercise: Morning: 10 minutes bike, 10 minute danceathon weights/strength: hamstrings, obliques Evening: 20 minutes bike weights/strength: shadow boxing, glutes Food Diary: Breakfast: Cracklin' Oat Bran with almond milk Lunch: Corn chowder Dinner: Yesterday's split pea s...

First, happy National Coming Out Day! I am coming out as a straight ally and I hope there will come a day when people don't have to hide who they are. And if you're stuck in high school or a conservative area and you're miserable, it will get better . Being an adult is the cat's pajamas and you can live your life and surround yourself with supportive, loving people. I felt like using my dehydrator today so I adapted this samosa recipe I blogged about here . If you recently got a dehydrator and are a little intimidated, this recipe is perfect because it's really easy and you can't mess it up. Dehydrators are definitely not a necessity, even if you eat 100% Raw, but they are fun and they create some lovely textures you can't get with traditional oven baking. Dehydrated Sweet and Spicy Indian Cauliflower 1 head cauliflower, separated into tiny florets 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced 1/2 cup snap peas, sliced 1 tbsp tamarind paste or fruit jam 1 tsp mustard 1 ts...

I never liked eggplant before I went to China. Then I learned the joy that is qie zi and I've loved it ever since. If you want an oily splurge, get some eggplant in an Asian restaurant. Or make it yourself. You can stir-fry it, roast it in the oven with some tomatoes, onions, zucchini, and squash, and you can flavor it Asian or European style. You can also cut it into thin strips and use it for Raw dishes like manicotti and ravioli. I made some Raw manicotti in March that had cashew cheese and spinach on the outside, rolled up inside thin, marinated eggplant slices. It was super good. I finally made the eggplant that I bought last week. I cut it into thin slices on my mandoline and then made half of it into a cooked dish and half into a raw dish. Here are the recipes. Spicy Italian Eggplant 1/2 eggplant, sliced or cut up however 2 tomatoes, diced Garlic Chili powder Paprika Italian seasoning Turmeric Fennel seed Stir-fry and add seasonings to taste. The fennel seed gives ...

I went to the Studio City Unitarian Universalist church yesterday as planned and the Earth Day service went really well. I was trying to think of something I could do for the Earth Day Lent -- but I'll get there in a minute. I always walk to church and afterwards I walked to Whole Foods to pick up some more sweet potatoes. When I got home I did some cooking -- I made veggie soup, black beans with wild rice, raw bread, raw green smoothie crackers, dehydrated sprouted lentils, buckwheat groats, and spelt groats, and some slightly dehydrated kiwi slices. The soup had leftover veggies I needed to use - a bunch of collard greens, carrots, fennel, half a tomato, some sun-dried tomato, a little bit of corn, some yellow pepper, a couple mushrooms, veggie broth (I use the concentrated kind out of a jar that I mix with water - there is no need for all that waste buying packages of veggie broth!), garlic, and seasonings. It was really good! I made a small pot and ate that for lunch. The...

Lots of pictures for you today! I busted the dehydrator back out last night (OK, it's always on the counter) and I made some great stuff. And then I ate all of it today. I dehydrated some apple chips, strawberries, and a kiwi, and a tray of fruit leather. The fruit leather was made of several clementines that needed to be eaten, a couple figs, a kiwi, some strawberries (tops and all), and then some spirulina, which made it green. I also made a bunch of kale into kale chips. My first kale chip venture was not fantastic, but also not horrible. I definitely need more practice. Kale chips with noochy sauce. Dehydrated fruit, fresh on the screen. YUM fruit leather. I ate all of this today. So what else did I do today? Lots of exercise. Lots. First I did my usual 1/2 hour walk to and from my 1 hour Cardio Barre class -- so that's two hours right there. Then I came home for about an hour and a half and had some lunch. I ate this: A purple smoothie with berries and spirulin...

I had a good weekend! I got some miscellaneous things done and of course I made more food. I had my job interview yesterday, and although the pay is tempting unfortunately I realized I would have to turn it down just because I need more flexibility because my acting career has to come first. I also watched the 1978 movie Ice Castles last night, and I did really enjoy it (like my mom knew I would). Today I went to the Unitarian Universalist church I've been going to recently -- I'm not really a church-goer but I am a friend-meeter so there ya go. I also had coffee with a girl from my acting class, which was really fun. Yay for social time. I finally got a chance to use my sprouted buckwheat groats and they are great! I read some conflicting reports about how long you should let them sprout -- some said only a day, and some said three days. I went for three days because I like maximum nutrition and I want to get the most bang for my buck. Here's my awesome sprouts i...

My dehydrator showed up today! It didn't get here until 7 but I did a few hours of prep before it got here so I could be ready to start using it! I sprouted some chickpeas -- my first sprouting experience ever! And it worked! Here are some pictures: That shows some of the sprouts coming through the bag. I thought it looked gross in a cool way. :) A peek into the bag. And my sprouts! I heard that the sprouts need to grow for 2-3 days and this was just two days but it seemed good enough to me. So, I immediately set to work destroying my beautiful sprouts and making some other good stuff -- hummus and falafel. For the hummus, I just used my food processor and mushed up the chickpeas with tahini, zucchini (to lower the calories a bit), cumin, coriander, parsley, cilantro, red pepper, and sun-dried tomatoes. It turned into a lovely sun-dried tomato hummus. Yum! I also made falafel, which I based loosely off of Gena's recipe on Choosing Raw: http://www.choosingraw.com/carrot-...