englandsword

I had a very chill weekend - I watched a lot of movies! I watched The Purple Rose of Cairo, The Opposite of Sex, Dear John, Love Story, and Bright Star. The Purple Rose of Cairo is one of Woody Allen's biggest hits and I did like it. Jeff Daniels was adorable! I grew up thinking of him as Harry from Dumb and Dumber so it's funny to see him in a "heart-throb" role. I didn't love The Opposite of Sex, it was just OK. Dear John was enjoyable, and I was impressed with Channing Tatum. He was really natural and great with this honest, almost shy dialogue. I really liked Love Story. Ryan O'Neal was great and Ali MacGraw's wardrobe was amazing. I seriously want all those clothes!!! Bright Star was the best movie I saw all weekend, and if you haven't seen it, you should. It's a 2009 film directed by Jane Campion about John Keats' romance with Fanny Brawne. The acting was beautiful, the cinematography is beautiful, the poetry is beautiful. Th...

I had a nice Thanksgiving. My roommate thought I was lying when I said I didn't want to celebrate and so she thinks I'm crazy/sad/anti-social but really I had a good time. I worked out, caught up on some TV and movies, got some work done, read blogs, and went to Whole Foods for lunch. I watched Fringe and The Office on Hulu and the movies Valley Girl and I Am Love on Netflix instant view. Tilda Swinton learned Italian for I Am Love and is getting Oscar buzz. If you like artsy foreign films, check it out. I also made some postcards to send to acting contacts with this on-set photo from Big Shoes to Fill: But I like this one, too - While I was perusing the salad bar at Whole Foods a guy came up and struck up a conversation with me and asked for my number! In case you're worried about my safety, I did not give it to him. But I'll take the ego boost anyway. This roasted beet and butternut squash dish was both on sale and completely delicious. I'm going to try ...

You probably know what you're making for Thanksgiving dinner this year but in case you need some inspiration, I have one hell of a post for you. Last year was my first vegan Thanksgiving and we went all-out. I spent weeks thinking of what I wanted to make because I wanted to re-create every traditional non-vegan food and impress our non-vegan guests. It turned out GREAT. We had a delicious meal that was actually pretty healthy, too! That's me, my boyfriend at the time, my step-dad, and my brother and his girlfriend. My mom was taking the picture. Everyone was vegan except my brother and his girlfriend. Left to right - green bean casserole, dumplings (above), Tofurkey, stuffing My plate from last year. From the potato dumpling, clockwise there's stuffing, green bean casserole, roasted asparagus, cranberry sauce (from a can, like my family enjoys), and Tofurkey with gravy. We bought the Tofurkey feast, which came with a Tofurkey roast, gravy, and dumplings. It was good...

I had a great and busy weekend working on Big Shoes to Fill. It's a short film where I play a girl encouraging her brother to tell our parents that instead of being a lawyer, he wants to be a clown. Here's a picture of my on-screen family. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all 12-hour filming days. But that doesn't mean I was only there for twelve hours! For example, Sunday I woke up at 7 to work out, get ready, and drive to set, call time was 9 AM, and we wrapped at 9:30. All the crew was still there when I left at 10:30. So, long days. We did have catering and craft services, but of course a lot of it was unhealthy and/or not vegan. But with a mix of catering and my own food, I managed to feed myself and stay pretty healthy. Friday I brought a big jar of roasted brussels sprouts with me and ate those as a snack. For lunch they bought me a salad with tofu from Whole Foods. For dinner (at 10 PM) when I got home I ate something I bought at the Santa Monica Co-Op on...

I've been living off my Curry Veggie Stew for the last couple days and feeling great! It's so good for you it's like injecting vitamins into your bloodstream. I've had a couple of great actor days! Yesterday I went to a seminar, a talk at The Actors' Network, and a casting director workshop and today I had a meeting with a manager. The manager meeting was in Santa Monica so I went to my favorite grocery store in the world (so far... I'm on a mission), the Santa Monica Co-Op. It's not a huge store but it has an amazing selection with a fantastic bulk section, bulk spices, great produce, a hot bar, pre-made foods, Raw foods, makeup, personal products.... Here's a small selection of bulk items I bought - Cinnamon, nutritional yeast, garam masala, and sun-dried tomatoes. I also got onion flakes, some vegan jerky bites to keep in my car for emergency food, potatoes, kale, apples, and broccoli. I love that they have spices like garam masala in bulk as w...

Oops, I did it again! I made another soup recipe. This one is jam-packed with veggies, both frozen and fresh. Curry Veggie Stew 3 bunches kale stalks, chopped 1 bunch carrots, diced 1 eggplant, diced 1 bag frozen broccoli florets 1 bag frozen spinach 1 cup yellow split peas 5 cups water 2 tbsp curry powder 1 tbsp garam masala 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon 1 tsp cumin 1 tbsp Braggs 1 tbsp mustard In a big soup pot, add all veggies (if using an onion, add that first), split peas, and water. Cook about an hour, until veggies and peas are soft. Season to taste. It's amazing, but the broccoli and eggplant are not even detectable when it's done because they cook down so much. This is the perfect recipe for any kind of vegetable you don't like that much. And of course, a perfect way to use your kale stalks! Links: There are lots of giveaways going on right now - http://rickthehealthsleuth. blogspot.com/2010/11/vegan- mofo-giveaway-nacho-moms- vegan.html http://thedisce...

I don't make a lot of tofu or tempeh recipes but for some reason I was just craving some this past week. I picked up a block of tempeh at TJ's and after debating for about four seconds how I wanted to make it, I made what I will now dub the easiest tempeh recipe evaaa. Curry Tempeh Loaf 1 slab tempeh 2 tbsp ketchup 2 tsp curry powder Cut tempeh into two servings. Coat one side with ketchup and curry powder. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Flip tempeh over. Coat other side with ketchup and curry powder, bake another 15-20 minutes. Surprisingly, it tastes really good. I got the idea from German Currywurst - it's sausage with ketchup and curry powder, especially popular in Berlin. Then I got really creative and added it into some colcannon. This would taste amazing with some sauerkraut, but I didn't have any. I had this one amazing meal (pre-vegan) at a German restaurant (a German restaurant in China... but don't let your brain explode) that was mashed potatoes wit...

I made a big pot of deeeliiicious soup today. It's vaguely based off of a recipe from Everyday Vegan. Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup 1 onion, diced 2 stalks celery, diced 1 head broccoli, chopped 5-8 cups water or veggie broth 2 tbsp miso 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (or 1 tbsp tahini) 1 tbsp Braggs (if using water and not broth) Saute onion in soup pot. Add remaining veggies and water, bring to boil. Water amount depends on how big your head of broccoli is (I had a lot, so I used 8 cups). Lower heat to simmer and cover, cook ten minutes or so, until veggies are tender. Transfer into a blender and puree. An immersion blender would definitely come in handy if you have one (I don't). Add miso, nooch, and Braggs, stir well and enjoyyyy. This soup really does taste a lot like Panera-style broccoli cheese soup. It tastes great with tahini if you have it, but this is a great low-fat version (I said fat-free, but it really means no added fat). It would also be nice to leave some floret...

I had a great/exhausting weekend. I volunteered at ActorFest (like Comic Con for actors) from 7:30-5 on Saturday and my whole weekend was pretty much structured around it. I tried to go to bed early on Friday but it was a total failure and I only got four hours of sleep. So then I was super wired on adrenaline all day Saturday from the lack of sleep I was even doing wall pushups during my rare downtime. I had a great volunteer gig - I got to escort the VIPs from check-in to the green room and I met some of my favorite casting directors! After catching up on sleep, I had two auditions on Sunday. Yesterday I had Power Group and then I was supposed to have an audition for a student film - but when I got there, nobody else was! And I was definitely on time and in the right place! I texted the student but by the time she texted me back I had left. I figured if the production was that unprofessional from the beginning, I don't want to be a part of it. Today I spent all day making...

It's clear that I've mastered the soup/stew/dal combo from winning recipes like Indian-Spiced Yellow Split Pea Soup , Green and Orange Soup , Indian-Spiced Barley Stew , and Mushroom Dal . But now I've taken it up a notch and I introduce the soup/stew/dal/tofu scramble. I started with my Eggless Egg Salad from yesterday. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish all the leftovers as is (it made a lot) and I had some other veggies I wanted to make into soup. Then I got this craaazy idea to put in a couple scoops of my eggless salad. Like so: This was vaguely the recipe: Eggless Salad Split Pea Soup 1 cup yellow split peas 4 cups water 2 bunches kale stalks 1 bunch carrots and greens 1 onion 1 bunch celery 1 eggplant 1 tbsp mustard 1 tbsp garam masala 1 tsp curry powder 1 cup Eggless Egg Salad Chop all veggies, cook at least an hour until the correct texture, season to taste and mix in eggless salad. You can put any veggies in here. Seriously, try it. It's really...

Another scorcher today, about 95 degrees. Whoa. I kind of made this recipe (from Melody of Melomeals by way of Choosing Raw): Raw Eggless Salad 3 c cauliflower, pulsed in food processor -½ c sunflower seeds soaked for 4 hours, drained then pulsed in food processor -1 c diced celery -1 c shredded carrots -½ c scallions or 2 T diced red onion or shallot -½ c nutritional yeast -2 t dried sage -1 T dried dill -1 T dried parsley -½ t garlic powder -¼ t turmeric -4 T tahini -4 T yellow mustard -2 T Dijon mustard -4 T relish -1 T chia seeds (or ground flax) -1 t black salt (or sea salt) -½ -1 t black pepper -½ c water Pulse the cauliflower in processor and set aside in large mixing bowl. Pulse the sunflower seeds, and add to the cauliflower. Add the celery, carrots and scallions and nutritional yeast and spices (not the salt or pepper). In a small bowl add the tahini, mustard, relish, chia seeds, salt and pepper along with ½ c water. Whisk well and pour over the veggie...

Today was HOT! In the upper 90's! In other words, fa bel tempo. Hace buen tiempo. Awesome freaking weather. I wanted to adapt my hummus and salsa mix to a salad. Usually I go for the dark green leafies but for some reason I was just wanting some old fashioned butter lettuce so I mixed this up and ate dinner on the roof porch! Doesn't that just look like a taco salad? It's really cool, hummus can stand in for queso or sour cream. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau makes quesadillas with hummus instead of cheese. I haven't tried it but I bet it's tasty. BTW, if you haven't listened to her Vegetarian Food for Thought podcasts, get thee to iTunes right now and rectify that gaping hole in your life and vegan education. I learned so much from her and she's so awesome and non-judgmental. I've had a few weird/shady acting job offers this week and I hate trying to figure out what to do. The especially insidious offer is the one that seems like an acting job, bu...

I had a crazy craving for hummus mixed with salsa yesterday, so I got some provisions and ate this weird/delicious snack. That's hummus and salsa but instead of chips I used sun-dried tomatoes!! YUM!! It sounds crazy but really, it's good. I'd love to eat this again but make some zucchini chips in the dehydrator. If you made the hummus and salsa yourself, this could easily be a raw snack. That eggplant hummus has about half the calories and fat of most hummus because it doesn't have any oil. And that salsa is freaking delicious and together they are da bomb. This morning I brewed up some of this new coffee I bought at TJ's the other day: Except first I had to really struggle to get it open because the pop top came off and I had to stab it with a knife and get really violent. This coffee was good but I'm not sure that I like it any more than the other kinds I buy. I don't even know what makes it espresso. For being such a coffee monster I am surprising...