VEGAN RECIPE REVIEW: Mushroom Stroganoff

One meal that I absolutely love and don't get to eat very often is stroganoff--even before I became vegan, I preferred just mushrooms rather than meat. Unfortunately, nobody else in my family likes mushrooms (in fact, they despise them) so I don't use them much. It's hard to avoid mushrooms when a lot of recipes that look great to me include mushrooms! So I'm going to make things once in a while that I know I'm probably the only one who will eat it. I've always tried to accommodate everybody's tastes, but now it's my turn ;)

When I saw this super simple version of mushroom stroganoff on It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken, I thought it looked like an easy recipe for me to make just for myself. (I'll link to it again at the end of the post.) A lot of the other recipes I looked at contained either wine (I don't drink) or plain vegan yogurt. My Kroger doesn't carry plain vegan yogurt (I'm not at all a fan of yogurt, so I'm not sure I'd like it anyway). This recipe didn't call for either of those, so it was another reason to choose it.

Usually when I review recipes, I make them exactly as written; the only change I made for this stroganoff was to cut the recipe in half (two servings instead of four).

I really like the recipes from It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken--I've only made a few, including the half-failed nacho "cheese", but I like how simple they are and that you don't need all sorts of weird ingredients that you'll only use once. In fact, when I was at Barnes & Noble, I saw Sam Turnbull's cookbook (the creator of the recipes at It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken). I almost bought it but it was $25 and I have such a hard time buying cookbooks when you can get recipes for just about anything online.

After flipping through it for a while, I saw that there were very few recipes that I probably wouldn't make. For the rest, though, I probably already have 90% of the ingredients at home. I looked up the book on Amazon and it was only $14; so I just ordered it on Amazon and saved $11.

Anyway, onto the recipe review!

Like I said, there are very few ingredients for this stroganoff:

Pasta for serving, vegan butter, onion, thyme, black pepper, salt, vegetable broth, plain non-dairy milk, garlic, and, of course, mushrooms.

I started with the pasta to get the water boiling while I was cutting up the onion and mushrooms. Then I made the sauce--broth, milk, flour, thyme, salt, and black pepper. I put it into a mason jar and shook it until it was well blended. Then I set that aside.

While the pasta was cooking, I heated a skillet over medium heat and added the onions and garlic. I stirred almost constantly to keep the garlic from burning.

Once the onion was translucent and soft, it was time to add the mushrooms.

Again, I just let this cook until the mushrooms were soft and turning brown.

After that, I poured in the sauce mixture. The sauce is very thin, but the flour in it will thicken it up once it comes to a boil.

As soon as it was at gentle boil, it thickened right up and it looked delicious!

Question for any of you that are familiar with vegan cooking or just non-dairy cooking. If you look closely, you can see little white spots that made me wonder if the almond milk got curdled from the heat. Is this something that happens with non-dairy milk? Do I need to keep it at a lower temp or add it in later? Or is this normal? I didn't notice it when I was eating it (it didn't feel gritty or anything), but I was just curious.

I divided it into two servings and poured it over pasta. It looked good! I would say it looked more like a mushroom gravy than stroganoff, but still good. I think when we hear words like "stroganoff", it puts an expectation in our heads; and then we are disappointed when it doesn't taste like what you're imagining. So, I would have called this "creamy mushroom pasta" or something like that.

The sauce thickened up a bit after I took these pictures, and it made it look even better.

But most importantly, the taste! I was the only one in the house to try this recipe; not only was I home alone, but I know my kids would groan about tasting a mushroom and they would form opinions before they even tried it.

When I tasted it, I had two thoughts: 1) Yum! Mushrooms and pasta are favorites of mine; and 2) There is quite a bit of thyme in this and it's a dominating flavor. I do like thyme, but I think next time I would only use half the amount. Still, I ate it and enjoyed it. The ratio of sauce to pasta was perfect! I used the recommended amount of pasta--2.5 ounces (dry) per serving.

As far as being filling... the dish was light enough that I didn't feel full or sick afterward. It seemed to be just the right amount. I ate it later than usual so I didn't need a snack before bed; it was filling enough that I was satisfied.

I have leftovers in the fridge, which I'll eat tonight. Would I make this again? Definitely! Although, next time I would cut the amount of thyme in half.

I'm sure I'll be trying out more of Sam's recipe from the cookbook; if I come across anything that I think is worth sharing, I'll be sure to do so!

Here is the link to Mushroom Stroganoff on It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken.

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Friday Night Photos

Happy Friday! It definitely doesn't feel like the weekend. My days are kind of messed up because Jerry traded shifts at work in order to be off on Noah's birthday. I felt like Wednesday was a weekend, so it's nice to have what feels like a second weekend!

I FaceTimed Joey yesterday (yes, the dog) because I was curious how he would react to my voice. Jeanie was out for a walk with him and Bentley, her basset hound, when I called. Joey was sniffing some bushes and didn't even look up when I was calling his name, haha. I was hoping to get a screenshot of our FaceTime call, but he was clearly having too much fun on his walk to pay any attention to me.

Here are the random photos I have from this week...

I had plans to visit my friend Jenni in Toledo last weekend; I had to reschedule last time because I got COVID. I went out to the car when it was time to leave and the tire pressure warning came on. I got out and looked at the tire--it was blindingly obvious what the issue was. I was NOT happy! I had to cancel on Jenni (again). Jerry put enough air in the tire to drive it to get fixed. They were able to patch it, but I still get nervous driving on it!

I love sweet potatoes, but whenever I want to roast some for a grain bowl, I always wish I had already peeled and cut them. This time, I bought three sweet potatoes; I roasted one already to keep in the fridge, but the other two filled this whole gallon-size bag! I put it in the freezer so I can just pull out enough sweet potatoes to cook for that meal.

I also added some of the lemon pepper tofu "cutlets" I made. I can't even describe what a game-changer the cutlets were; they were SO GOOD. The seasoning was mild enough to go with several different types of dishes and the texture was like chicken. I know they look dry and hard as a rock in this picture, but they weren't. Jerry kept raving about them and said it's the best thing I've made so far since becoming vegan. He wants me to make more.

I put them in a grain bowl with farro and peas, and topped with a homemade tahini dressing. (Who even am I?! Tofu, farro, tahini... it's so funny how much my diet has changed in six months.) I'd never tried farro before, but I really like it.

The tofu kind of looks like croutons, haha

Noah changed his mind about what he wanted to do for his birthday; rather than La Pita and the Henry Ford Museum, he decided to go to Barnes & Noble instead (I could spend an entire day in there, so I was thrilled) and then he chose Red Robin for dinner. 

He didn't understand why I wanted to take his picture in front of Barnes & Noble, but I thought it would be good for memories. When he's my age and can't remember what we did for his 18th birthday, we can just look back through the pictures.

I saw this sign inside and I thought it was cute for book lovers!

Next was Red Robin. Since the pandemic started, I'd only been out to eat TWICE. It felt so odd to go to a restaurant. Speaking of how much my diet has changed, look at this very sad-looking dinner at Red Robin:

First, I will say it was better than it looked. However, when Noah chose Red Robin, I thought for sure they'd have a good vegan burger. Well, none of the buns are vegan, so I had to do a lettuce wrap. I wanted sweet potato fries, but when I asked the server and she asked the cook, she said the fries were not vegan. I was really surprised by that!

My side options were a side salad or broccoli--haha! The "burger" patty was vegan and they put a few slices of avocado on there along with some salsa. The patty was really good, but the salsa had cinnamon in it and I definitely would not get that salsa next time.

When I got in the car, I googled the fries issue out of curiosity and learned that Red Robin's official statement is that their fries are not vegan because they could be cross-contaminated using the same fryer as non-vegan foods. (I think this is more for allergy reasons; they don't want to tell someone with a severe allergy that there are no eggs or dairy, only for that person to have a reaction due to cross contamination.) The fries themselves, though, are vegan. If I go back, I'd be fine with eating the fries. Some restaurants even have a designated fryer for people with allergies.

I have to say, it was really nice to go out as a family! We haven't done that in a long time. As we were sitting at the booth, my heart just felt really full and happy. While I absolutely miss when my kids were little, having teenagers is a lot of fun.

Yesterday, Jerry and I went to Goodwill because I am in desperate need of shirts that aren't hoodies (or at least winter clothes). Also, I only have a couple of pairs of jeans that fit well and are comfortable. Even the ones I bought a few months ago are too big to wear.

I really liked this tie-dyed shirt. The fabric is thinner than it looks and it's a light color, so as far as I'm concerned, it's fine for summer. (I don't like to wear short-sleeved shirts)

I had the hem tucked under a little because the hem is is just plain and straight across, but I'd like to add a very thin elastic at the bottom just to keep it from flowing out and making me look a lot bigger than I am.

I wasn't sure about buying this orange shirt (it's a crop top, which I would never wear!) but I absolutely LOVE the fabric--it's super cozy and the color is my favorite. I just wished the top was longer. Anyway, I couldn't help but buy it and hope I could come up with a way to alter it (adding a contrasting fabric at the bottom or otherwise repurposing it). If you have ideas, please let me know!

This was my "find of the day"--I was so excited about this! It's an Army-issued mummy bag, which sounds odd for a 40-year old woman to be excited about buying. However, I like to lie inside of a sleeping bag in the evenings because I'm always so cold. When I saw this bag in perfect condition for only $5, I snatched it up.

I used the label to look it up when I got home and it's a bag that was used in Army during the Vietnam-era--so cool!

I washed it super carefully--it's not supposed to be machine washed, but considering I bought it used, I felt like it needed more than a spot-cleaning. It came out of the washer and dryer perfectly. Whoever owned it stored it very well; I couldn't have bought a nicer bag for less than $150-200.

Jerry and I went to our friends' Dave and Renee's house on Tuesday to catch up with them. They have so many more chickens than they did the last time I was there! Renee gave me some eggs to bring home for the family. I think it would be fun to have chickens! But I'm definitely not ready for anything like that and I don't live in an ideal place for it.

And that's all I've got. Have a great weekend! xo

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Reader Tips: Saving Money!

I really loved reading the responses to last week's "Reader Tips" about cleaning and organizing, so I'm excited to share this one today about saving money. I asked on Facebook for your best money-saving tips and the responses were fun to read through!

I spent way too much time last week putting each tip in its own colorful box; it made the post pretty, but rather than spend an entire day doing that again, I'm going to just share the responses here like my usual typing. (This actually gave me an idea for next week's reader tips--time savers!)

I've always been a frugal person for the most part. There are some things that I don't mind splurging on, but some things don't matter to me and I look for ways to save.

My mom has always been big on garage sales and I grew up looking for thrifty finds like that. Garage sales are the best! I know that a lot of people don't like to wear used clothing, which is totally fine; however, I'm cool with it and I've saved a FORTUNE that way. When I was losing weight, I was going down a size about every 10 pounds--so going from a size 24 to a 4 meant dropping 10 sizes, and therefore, 10 different wardrobes over the course of a year. Who can afford that?!

I got a lot of items from garage sales, but also from thrift stores. I don't typically spend more than about $5 on an item. At garage sales, I'll spend about $1-2 per item. I've gotten tons of brand name items, some with the tags still attached. I have a pair of 7 For All Mankind jeans that I bought for less than $3, and still had the tags on them!

I've even bought things just to sell them again; my best clothing find to resell was a vintage Kurt Cobain shirt that I bought for less than a dollar (I want to say it was 80 cents?) and then sold it on Ebay for about $100 (I can't remember the exact amount, but I know it was about that).

Because who doesn't want a vintage Surf Style jacket? (Can you believe it's been 30 years since these were super popular?)

Anyway, thrift stores are awesome for saving money and super fun to go to because you never know what you might find. So, that's my money-saving tip: If you're cool with it, used items are a LOT cheaper--whether it's from garage sales or thrift stores.

Okay, here are some great tips that readers/followers suggested. Enjoy!

ALWAYS have a frozen pizza on hand, so you have a quick and easy dinner everyone likes without resorting to dining out.
-Amy Wilson

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"Convenience meal” in our house. Nuggets and tots are frequent favorites- and when it gets used it gets replaced the next shopping trip.
-Cindy Smerdon

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Find out what foods have good store brand dupes. I’ve learned that I like Kroger Oreos, Rice Krispies, and other things my kids want without having to pay for the name brand. Also making potatoes or rice the basis of the meal saves a lot because those are pretty inexpensive.
-Kimberly Hermansen Thomas

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Never leave the house without a water bottle!
-Tara Quesnel Trudo

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Saving tip: When/if you get a raise, if you are not currently strapped for cash, increase your 401(k) or savings amount by half of that raise. Example: 4% raise, increase 401(k) by 2%.
-Jessica Kurts Lockwood

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1. Walmart (or whatever store is available) grocery pickup. I’m a terrible impulse grocery buyer even when I have a list.

2. Meal planning. I’m not strict on the schedule but when I do my weekly shopping I plan out at least five dinners to make sure I have everything I need. Additional trips to the store inevitably increase grocery costs.

3. Keep leftover or soon to expire food front and center in the refrigerator. Wasted food is wasted $$$.
-Jen Mitchell

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I started the grocery pick up during the height of Covid and continue to use it. I am also a huge impulse shopper (mostly of crap food) so this saves me money and calories.
-Melissa Connole Kelly

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Instead of takeout when I’m too tired to cook, run into the grocery store and grab a rotisserie chicken, bag of 90 second rice, and microwaveable frozen veggies like petite peas or sweet corn.
-Theresa Marie

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Meal Planning! If I don't we end up shopping every day, having food in the house that doesn't get eaten, or having a lot of take away.
-Aimee McKean

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Utilize Amazon's "subscribe & save" feature. We have set up toilet paper, paper towels, dog food, zip-loc bags, toothpaste, etc. on automatic delivery and we end up saving quite a bit on staples.
-Krista Howell

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Use cash for groceries, pet products, eating out, etc. When your cash is gone, you are done until next payday.
-Nancy Rice

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Borrow books [including ebooks and audiobooks] from the library instead of purchasing.
-Natalie Tremblay

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1. When you find jeans, pants or shoes that you love and fit exactly right, buy two of them. I’m picky so this prevents me from buying four or five other pairs that I don’t really love and therefore won’t wear.

2. We splurge once a year on house cleaning usually right before the holidays. It’s well worth the money to have that checked off the list when the holidays have so many other priorities.

3. Always go to the grocery store with a list and stick to it.
-Colleen Wheat Reprogel

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Sometimes buying good quality clothes may cost more at first but it beats buying a dozen other items that you aren’t happy with, don’t fit well, or are poor quality.
-Jen Mitchell

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For groceries I love Aldi, I can get a lot more for my money there. Also, shop around for deals. If there are 4 grocery stores close together see whom has the best deals and buy it there. You can also shop around for LP. I live in the country and I call around every year to see whom has the best deals. People don’t realize you can switch providers every year and you’re not stuck with the first one you went with.
-Michelle Wachholz

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Honestly... just don't shop, especially recreationally. If I don't go to Target or wherever, I don't spend money there. Evaluate every purchase as: do I need it, do I want it, and is there a cheaper alternative that will serve the purpose as good. 

Also... don't buy things just because they are on sale. You aren't saving money unless you would have bought it regardless of the price. That said, stock up on staples when they are on sale. Our Kroger has a few times a year the pasta we eat is like 49 cents a bag with coupon. I buy a few of each shape and am good for a while.

Hubs found out one local grocery grinds up steaks that are nearing sell by dates and puts it out for like 3 bucks a pound. Better quality ground beef for less so he always grabs what he can when he catches the deal.

If I'm on the ball, I meal prep my lunches to keep from eating out. Pay off debt, evaluate your insurance regularly, pack a cooler when you travel, etc.--so many things hubs and I have done over the years. Have a good savings (though market is tough right now) and should be able to retire in about ten or so years.
-Christina Luebbert

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Get familiar with the best products for regularly used products. I started a notebook awhile ago, and kept a list to compare. I know Big Lots has the best price on cat litter and napkins; Walmart best prices on body wash, shampoo etc; Aldi pan spray, Stevia and other favorites. Publix always has BOGOs, so I stock up, and if I have coupons for the items, even better.

I also check the clearance sections at the back of the grocery stores, and at Walmart for clothes. I know the prices for the produce guy down the street and he has great prices on in season stuff. I’m also not product loyal - a lot of the time the generic or store brands are just as good. Also - I do as much as possible in one trip to save gas - I put a cooler in the car and it keeps everything cold or frozen!
-Ellen Mocarski Bedford

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Another money-saving tip: Buy a dependable vehicle, maintain it well and drive it until there is no more life remaining. My 2013 Honda CRV has 160k miles and runs great! I will likely have it another 5 years at least. My last car was a 2001 Toyota Corolla we drove 17.5 years and then sold it for $2k! It’s a poor man’s mentality to always need the newest vehicles. Invest instead!
-Melinda Wolf Miller

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Use the library! -Elizabeth Dehling

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1) I used an app and tracked every cent of my spending for a month to find out where I was spending my money… turns out I buy a lot of coffee out so I bought a coffee machine and saved lots by making it at home.

2) Snowball your payments, make all of your minimum payments but any extra money, pay off your smallest bill first and when that is paid off put that money into your next bill.

3) Don’t buy on credit if you can’t pay that credit card off monthly. Delayed gratification leads to financial freedom!
-Amanda Hood

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My mother always said to never buy something you already have that works.
-Olga Carr

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BUDGET! Three years ago I went through all my accounts, credit cards, etc. and figured out where my money was going. I cancelled the subscriptions I didn’t use and listed my debts in order from smallest to largest and also what the interest rates were. I started by paying off the smaller debts which allowed me to put bigger amounts on the larger debts and it snowballed. I’ve paid off over $90,000 this way (including my student loans which were $40k). Only a little bit more to go!
-Taryn Blair

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Best money-saving tip: Cook and eat at home. Make coffee at home instead of $8/drink at Starbucks. Shop for as much as I can at Aldi and then supplement from other stores. Dining out/Food is by far the biggest over-spend in most households!
-Melinda Wolf Miller

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Costco!! Totally worth the subscription fees. The savings in my contacts alone was worth it, on top of paper products and bulk essentials.
-Emily Marshall

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The public library is a huge money saver! I have to have saved hundreds by “shopping” there for reading material. If your library isn’t near by, you can access lots of titles through ebooks with your library card.

Give your kids their own clothing budget and let them decide how to spend. The money goes further and they learn some great lessons in the process.

I’ve discovered Sally Beauty toner instead of boxed color or salon color for my blond hair. It is easy and doesn’t damage my hair as much either.

This is a little against natural instinct, but spending more of great quality or exactly the item you want is usually cheaper in the long run. I’ve wasted lots of money over the year trying to make do and then replace multiple times. It ended up being much for expensive and wasteful.
-April Edwards Bright

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This is a tip I aspire toward but haven't fully done, just rudimentarily. It's called reverse budgeting. You take all the money that's allocated for bills, savings, groceries, etc. and use it accordingly. Whatever you have left you are free to spend as you wish. It feels so much more free than a rigid budget.

-Jill Marie

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If you you watch Netflix and channels like Hulu, do not get tricked into a “free 30 day” offer. You will be charged the monthly fee if you forget to cancel. I did for many months! Never again and I canceled Netflix too. “Freevee” has ads but it is FREE!
-Caroline Triplett

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Join your local "buy nothing" Facebook group to get stuff for free and give away items you want to donate.
-Natalie Tremblay

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...and there you have it! Lots of great advice on simple ways to save money. Thank you thank you thank you to all of you that commented with a tip!

For next week, I'd love to share tips about ways that you save TIME--whether it's multitasking certain things, meal prepping for a week at a time, or even putting away dishes while your coffee brews--every minute that we have counts! Since we all have the same amount of time in a day:

What is your best TIME SAVING tip?

You can comment here, email me, or comment on the Facebook post that you can find here. I'd love to share the compilation next week! (If you don't want me to use your name, no problem--just let me know). If you don't want to (or aren't able to) comment, feel free to email me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. I look forward to seeing what you come up with! I'm great at saving money, but time? Not so much ;)

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 59

I'm definitely feeling better today after being so frustrated yesterday. Jerry and I went to our friends' house last night and it definitely turned my mood around. Renee and I talked about cross country, and we are going to coach together again! My last year coaching was 2019, when I did it myself, and then she took over for two years. So, the last time we coached together was 2018.

I'm excited about coaching again. I'm also really nervous because I don't know a single kid who will be on the team (the ones I coached before are in middle school now, so they are too old for our team (3rd-5th grades). New kids means new parents, and I get really nervous when meeting new people. Thankfully, Renee is a pro at it (she's a teacher).

We work well together; she is great with communication with the parents and my strength is putting together a coaching plan. We start practices at the end of August, so I'm going to try to come up with some new fun games to play.

Anyway, moving on to today's weigh-in...

I had a really great week. I stopped snacking at night, which was really difficult for the first few days, but I feel much better when I go to bed. I also drank more water--not as much as I would like, but I really did make a strong effort. I was excited, then, when I got on the scale this morning:

I was at 144.4, down from 148 last week. (I was probably more like 146 last week, but I'd had a lot of sodium before my weigh-in.) 

Being at 144.4 means I am finally back in the "normal" category on the BMI chart!

From the BMI calculator found here

I know how flawed the BMI assessment is, but it was still a big milestone I wanted to reach. Although, I cannot FATHOM what I would look like at 108 pounds--that's crazy. When I was 121 pounds I wore a size 2. So at 108 pounds, I think I would look sickly. I'd love to lose about 10 more pounds, but even if I can just maintain this weight, I'll be thrilled.

The jeans in my mirror photo are my old skinny jeans--the ones I wore in my goal weight photo from, well, I can't even remember. I loved those jeans so much! They are super comfy. I haven't been able to wear them for four years. I know skinny jeans are out of style now, and jeans are going in the opposite direction (very baggy); I've never cared about what's in style or not, but unless I find a top that really works well with these jeans, I will probably retire them. I think I may buy some new jeans to celebrate my new milestone :)

Well, I'm going to cut this off here because we are going to take Noah out for his birthday. He wants to go to La Pita for dinner and--I was very surprised by this--to go to the Henry Ford Museum. We've been there a million times for field trips, but Noah really loves it and that's what he chose to do. Can you believe I'm the mom of an ADULT now? He was only six when I started this blog!

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Burn-the-World Frustration

Gah! I could not be more frustrated right now. When Jerry or I get this frustrated, we always say "I want to burn the world!" to express that it is our maximum tolerance level of frustration.

I was already in a terrible mood because I've been trying to work on a woodworking project but I cannot, for the life of me, align the blades in my jointer. I've spent umpteen hours working on it--I even wrote about it a couple of weeks ago when I cut my fingers--and I have a jig specifically designed to align blades.

However, every time I think I have it, I test a piece of wood and it's still not right. And now, because I've been messing with it so much, the new blades look even worse than the old ones with little nicks here and there. I've watched so many YouTube videos about it and they make it look so fast and easy!

I came back into the house in a terrible mood, but started to work on Transformation Tuesday. I was almost done and when I tried to upload a photo, Blogger is just not having it for some reason. I've tried everything I can think of but I just can't get my photos uploaded.

So, if there is a level of frustration beyond "burn the world!" frustration, that's the level that I'm at right now. Jerry and I are going to Dave and Renee's tonight (I can't even remember the last time I saw them) so I need to chill out before we leave.

Anyway, I hope everything with my blog is back to normal tomorrow. Sorry that I don't have a Transformation Tuesday to post--I only have one submission, so please send me some more for next week! Just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com and include your name and description of your transformation. Thanks!

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Choose Your Battles: Round 1

This is kind of an odd post and I certainly didn't plan to do it, but after the day I had today, it seemed like it would be fun. It all started with my frustration while cleaning my oven. I despise cleaning the oven/stove and anything around it because the grease gets baked onto the glass (and other surfaces) and despite multiple cleaning attempts, I just assumed it was stained there permanently.

You know those dark brown grease spatters that I'm talking about? They somehow get on the oven door, even though your food isn't anywhere near it? It gets baked on so that it's nearly impossible to remove. No matter how much I scrubbed, I couldn't get it off. I probably tried every commercial cleaner on the market, and nothing loosened it up enough to scrub it away.

So, I made do with the oven's steam cleaning cycle--I would put on some degreaser, hope it worked, steam clean, scrub until my arm felt like Jello--only to see that the oven was clean, but those stubborn grease spots seemed to be a permanent stain. Today, I was ready to tackle it--I just couldn't stand looking at it anymore.

Battle #1: Oven Grease vs. Elbow Grease (and baking soda)

After Googling how to remove the grease from the oven door, all the sites were saying the same thing: a paste made of baking soda and water. You just mix water into the baking soda until it's the texture of shaving cream. Then you spread it all over the oven door, let it sit for 30 minutes or so, and wipe it off.

HAHAHA. I used every cleaner imaginable, so I thought there was no way that baking soda would work on something like that. I decided to give it a try and see what happened. This turned into a bit of an experiment with not only the oven, but a couple of other "battles" as well.

I spread the paste all over the oven door (and the countertop oven door as well). I let it sit for 30 minutes, then tried wiping it off. I could see that it was actually working! However, I thought it needed more time, so I waited another 20 minutes or so. Then I grabbed a scour pad and microfiber washcloth began to wipe off the baking soda, using a little elbow grease as well.

Well, the joke was on me! IT WORKED. I couldn't believe my eyes. All of this time... BAKING SODA?! 

It worked really well for the countertop oven, too. I totally forgot to take a before picture, but you can still see it through the baking soda:

And then afterward:

I am still shocked. I told Noah to go look in the oven, and (typical teen boy) he opened the oven door and asked, "What about it?"

I just blinked at him. Seriously? But I pulled up the before picture to show him, and his jaw dropped. He couldn't believe it, either. I'm so excited that it worked and that my oven "stains" are gone!

Battle #2: Vacuum Cleaners (Black & Decker vs. Shark)

Remember the vacuum that I said was the best $50 I ever spent? Well, I still love it! But one of the pieces of plastic recently broke off (I may have dropped it...) and sometimes it's hard to get it to work well without holding the plastic piece tight against the vacuum--it's difficult to describe. I still use it because I love how powerful it is, but Jerry wanted to get a cordless stick vacuum to use for quick clean-ups. After looking at some on Amazon, I agreed that it would be super convenient--I loved that you can detach the top and use it as a hand vacuum so easily.

The one we picked specified that it was great for picking up pet hair, which is exactly what we wanted it for. It was a mid-priced one, but it was still over $200--hard to bite the bullet when the last vacuum I bought was only $50 and it could suck your basement right through the living room floor. Unfortunately, it's discontinued and to order the part for it would cost about as much as the vacuum did. I hoped that the stick vacuum would work just as well.

It arrived a few days ago and I actually had fun vacuuming to try it out. The detachable parts are awesome and not having a cord is a luxury I didn't know I was missing. However, I wasn't sure what to think about it--it's super quiet but the suction didn't feel very powerful. Still, it managed to pick up quite a bit of pet hair, even though I'd just vacuumed the day before. I figured I'd give it some more time before deciding whether we should even keep it.

I was about to clean the cat beds with it when I had the idea to battle it out--the new vacuum versus the old one--by using the hose attachments to clean two cat beds that were loaded with cat hair. I actually let them accumulate quite a bit of hair on purpose so that I could see which one did a better job cleaning it off.

Here they are with their attachments:

Today, I set them side by side and to be fair, I decided to give each bed three minutes with the brush attachment and one minute with the crevice attachment. Then I'd compare them again to see which did the better job. First, the "before" photo--SO much hair! (Canvas like this is the WORST for accumulating pet hair. I didn't realize it when I made these beds.)

I started with the new Shark vacuum, using it as a handheld vacuum with the brush attachment. I set my timer for three minutes and got to work. After that, I set the timer for one minute and used the crevice tool to get in the--well, crevices.

Not too bad! But I wasn't super impressed. There was still quite a bit of hair stuck to it. I did the routine again with the Black & Decker vacuum (that's the $50 one): three minutes with the brush, one minute with the crevice tool.

I immediately knew it was going to be the winner. It took all of 45 seconds to look as clean as the other bed. Still, I gave it the same amount of time. In the end? The Black & Decker vacuum won, hands-down.

The one on the left was cleaned with the Black & Decker vacuum, and on the right was cleaned with the new Shark one

Some things I noted: Using the Shark as a handheld gets VERY tiresome on my arm. It's pretty heavy to hold and maneuver and my forearm was killing me after just four minutes. The Black & Decker vacuum was super light because I only had to hold the attachment--not the motor. 

The Shark vacuum didn't really suck up the hair--the hair stuck to the bristles on the brush attachment, so I had to stop frequently to pull the hair off of the bristles and let the vacuum suck it up. This was super annoying. The pet hair attachment on the Black & Decker vacuum works like a dream; however, the crevice attachment sucks doesn't work well. It's finicky.

So, this little experiment was super helpful! I'm going to return the Shark vacuum; the suction isn't great, hair kept getting stuck in the bristles and in every little nook and cranny of the canister. I had to reach in to pull stuff out into the garbage, so it was messy. (To be fair, the Black & Decker one has this problem, too, especially since I broke it the plastic piece broke off somehow. But the Shark was much worse.)

Battle #3: Vegan Mozzarella vs. Yours Truly

I wrote about my attempts at making vegan mozzarella--they were a miserable fail. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong and it was driving me crazy. I eventually gave up on it, but I knew I wanted to try again. I found a different recipe and today I gave it a go. (The first recipe I tried was from The Vegan Blueberry)

This current recipe (found at The Hidden Veggies) didn't call for cashews, so it was quite a bit different. The main ingredient is actually full-fat coconut milk. Still, I had to do pretty much the same process--mix the ingredients, then cook on the stove, pour into molds, and cross my fingers that it would be "sliceable and shreddable", as the recipe promised. We all know how badly it turned out last time...

At that point, I'd figured it just wasn't going to happen, but I'm glad I tried again... 

BECAUSE IT WORKED! Look how beautiful this came out:

The color doesn't look quite as good, but the texture was a million times better, and it tastes really good. The texture is more like a fresh mozzarella ball than the pre-shredded stuff. There is a little garlic powder in there which I can definitely pick out (I love garlic, so this wasn't a problem).

This recipe was actually easier to make than the previous because I didn't have to blend cashews. I didn't even have to blend anything--just put the ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, then simmer for six minutes, adding the tapioca flour with only one minute left.

I may have had the heat too low because I had to cook it longer--probably nine minutes?--but now I know what to expect. The blogger who published this recipe has been making vegan cheese for 20 years and even has a free e-book about vegan cheesemaking. It was super helpful to read about WHY each ingredient is important. (Again, you can find the recipe on The Hidden Veggies.)

I am going to make homemade pizza tomorrow and try out the mozzarella. If it melts and it still tastes good, I'll consider myself the winner of this battle ;)

The battles today were fun! I think it would be cool to do this with other things as well, especially to compare products. That's why I called this post "Round 1"--I may have a Round 2 in the future.

As for today: I beat the oven grease; I beat the vegan cheese; and, well, let's just say we have a lot less cat hair on those cat beds.

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Forever Friends

I've been posting every single day for two and a half years now--it started as a New Year's resolution in 2020 and then I just didn't want to break the streak. I thought about doing it today, but I still can't bring myself to do it!

I was just about to go to bed when I realized I hadn't prepped a post today. For the past few months, I've been writing in the morning on most days and it's nice knowing it's done. I guess I just forgot that I hadn't written already.

My friend Sarah is visiting from Arizona (I've mentioned her quite a bit on my blog, but not regularly because she lives so far away) and she and her husband, Ne, came over. (The Spanish word nene--pronounced "nay-nay"--is a reference to a young child. Sarah's husband is Mexican and his name is actually Norberto, but his childhood nickname stuck and everyone calls him Ne now.)

Sarah and I were born three days apart and grew up two houses apart on the same street. We were best friends all through school and then college roommates. After college, Sarah moved out to Phoenix and has been there ever since. I always look forward to her visits, though. And Ne is a great guy--interestingly, he and Jerry are very much alike. We chose well ;) 

It's so weird to think that Sarah and Ne have been married since October 2011, when Jerry and I flew out to Arizona for the wedding. I wrote about that trip on my blog at the time--and now they have two kids and a house and the whole shebang. Time goes SO fast. Things like that make me glad that I've been blogging, because it's kind of like a journal; I can go back and read about things like that!

Anyway, Sarah and Ne came over this afternoon to visit with Jerry and me. I love that no matter how much time has passed or how infrequently we see each other, Sarah and I can jump right into a conversation like we'd talked every day. Jerry and Ne have always been kind of fascinated at how Sarah and I can finish each other's sentences and practically read each other's minds.

The most extreme example I can think of: we were playing a board game where you have to describe a word without using particular words. My word was "cliff" and knowing Sarah as well as I do, I said, "Murdoc..." and she yelled "Cliff!" without missing a beat. The guys thought we were totally cheating. 

When I was young, MacGyver was my very favorite TV show--my siblings and I loved it and we watched reruns as well as new episodes. There was an infamous villain named Murdoc on the show, and I remember the scene of an episode where Murdoc falls off a cliff. I guess I told Sarah about it and for some reason, it remained memorable to us both. We used to try to convert each other to our favorite shows--she watched Alf, which was in the same time slot as MacGyver. So... that's how "cliff" and "Murdoc" relate to each other ;) 

This was the first time Ne has been here since I finished remodeling the house. I'm so glad that things are feeling a little more normal since the pandemic. Visiting with friends feels like a luxury!

I forgot to get a picture with Sarah today, which is a bummer, but here is a fun picture of the two of us from when we were little. How funny would it be to recreate this photo?! 

I would probably have to make the bathing suits--I can't imagine finding some that are even similar. But it would be a fun picture to do over!

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VEGAN RECIPE REVIEW: Orange Tofu

Well, Friends, I have been vegan for almost six months now, and I decided it's time to try tofu--basically a rite of passage for vegans/vegetarians. I only say that because I grew up having no clue what tofu is and it always seemed at the top of the "weird foods" list to me; it's a very common ingredient for the most part, but it was completely new to me. But I was interested to try it!

After reading a ton of info about the best ways to prepare it, I ended up combining a prep method with someone else's recipe and then my own recipe, so this isn't really a review of one recipe like I normally do. This was more of an adventure in tofu.

First, I read on this site about how freezing and then thawing extra-firm tofu can give it a firmer, chewier texture that is closer to meat. I got this info from Plant Power Couple. I bought some extra-firm tofu, which looked like this:

I'd had it in the freezer for a couple of weeks (not necessary to freeze that long, but since I wasn't sure what to do with it yet, I just had it hanging out in the freezer). Then I thawed in the refrigerator overnight. When I opened it, there was no smell from it at all, which was a relief to me. The texture was just like a sponge--it was tempting to squeeze it hard to get all the water out!

Following the instructions from Plant Power Couple, I drained the tofu and then placed it between some paper towels and put "something heavy" on it. I used a Corningware dish and added some cans of beans to weigh it down more. The whole purpose of this is to remove as much liquid as possible from the tofu.

This is what it looked like right after setting the dish on top:

And about four hours later, after a couple of paper towel changes:

You can see how much it shrank from removing the excess liquid. From there, I cut it into cubes:

After this, per the same site, I made a marinade. For that, I followed the recipe for Sweet & Sour Marinade at Andi Anne.

It started looking really gross once it was in the marinade:

After about four hours, I started on the cooking process. From that point, I started following the recipe for Orange Tofu from Healthy Simple Yum. I wanted to make a batter for it to hopefully make the tofu more appealing to someone who has never eaten it (i.e. me). These ingredients are for the batter and the sauce:

The batter consists of flour, cornstarch, garlic powder, salt, and water. I messed this up a little by just coating it with the flour/cornstarch mixture and leaving out the water--I realized that just before I started cooking it, so I added a little water and tried to stir it in, but it just kind of made a goopy mess. I hoped it was good enough.

This was before adding the water

I didn't use all the oil called for (1/2 cup) to cook the tofu--I just used a couple of tablespoons. While I'm sure that much oil makes it very crispy and delicious, I just didn't feel good about pouring all that oil into the pan. Using the small amount I did actually worked very well:

It was really starting to look edible! I set the cooked tofu aside while I mixed the sauce ingredients and then brought it up to a simmer to thicken. The sauce was really good! I used less sugar than called for, though--the recipe said 1/3 to 1/2 cup, but I used 1/4 cup (and I wouldn't change that--I may use even less next time). This is the texture of the sauce before adding the tofu:

I dumped the tofu back into the pan with the sauce:

I was careful when stirring it together, because I was worried the tofu would crumble apart or something (it didn't). I cooked some basmati rice (yum!) and served the Orange Tofu on top of the rice.

Holy smokes--I have to say, tofu is the vegan ingredient that has surprised me the most so far! It was SO GOOD. It wasn't mushy at all--not the same texture as chicken, but very close--more like chicken nugget-type meat than chunks of chicken, if that makes sense.

The only thing I wished I could change was the amount of salt. It was right at my threshold of saltiness. I'm absolutely sure it's because I used the salty marinade followed by a salty sauce (I'm going to start using liquid coconut aminos instead of my usual tamari or liquid aminos to reduce the sodium in things like this). This was the "salty meal" that I was referring to on Wednesday when I said I knew my weight was going to be up for my weigh-in.

I have to say, though, that my family wasn't as crazy about the Orange Tofu as I was. They didn't dislike it, but they weren't raving about it either. The kids were comparing it to chicken, which I don't think is a fair comparison. They were saying that they liked the taste, but it's "not the same as chicken". Tofu and chicken couldn't be any different--tofu is made from soybeans while chicken is animal flesh--so trying to make one perfectly match the other just doesn't work.

When I said I wanted to get a meaty texture, it wasn't to try to match the texture of chicken, but to firm it up because soft tofu would gross me out. Regardless, I think if you eat it with the mindset that it's tofu and not chicken, it's easier to accept. Hopefully that makes sense!

Final thoughts:

A block of tofu is definitely going to be sitting in my freezer at all times. I will absolutely make it again using this cooking method.

In the future, I will use the advice of Plant Power Couple and use oil-based marinades rather than water-based ones. You're basically replacing the water you drained from the tofu with more water if you use a water-based marinade. While the texture wasn't what I would consider soft, I'd like to see if I can get an even firmer texture by using less liquid in the marinade. The marinade is important because it's what flavors the tofu itself.

I will definitely remember to add water to the batter before adding the tofu; it will be much easier to coat the pieces that way.

Again, at the advice of Plant Power Couple, I'll try baking it low and slow next time. (I'll use the convection oven, which is essentially an air fryer.)

Overall, I'm so glad that my first tofu adventure was a good one! I liked it so much that I'm marinating some more right now to make Lemon Pepper Tofu Cutlets from Plant Power Couple. I've never made tofu without freezing it first, but their freezer idea is perfect for me so I can just keep some in there all the time. The only problem is remembering to thaw it out by putting it in the fridge the day before.

Yay tofu! ;)

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