Stew and a rabbit (but not rabbit stew)

So my twin sisters left yesterday to spend a month in Italy. About 30 hours before they had to go, one of them calls me and says that the very flimsy plans she made for someone to take care of her pet rabbit have fallen through, and she needs me to watch it until she gets back. There is literally not another soul who can take this rabbit (apparently), and even if they did, there's a good chance that it would be someone who didn't care about its needs. So now I've got this rabbit for a month.
The thing is, rabbits don't make very good pets. They're dumb, like hamsters (but unlike rats, which are very smart and affectionate and awesome). Unlike hamsters, though, rabbits need a lot of space. They also don't need human affection or interaction, and really don't enjoy being picked up.
I'm doing my best to keep her happy. During the day when I"m home and can watch her I let her run around most of my apartment (except the bathroom, bedroom and computer room). She's running around the big space and exploring.
She's still really cute and soft, and they don't smell, so it isn't really an inconvenience.

So today I cooked my own version of Chipotle, Corn, and Black Bean Stew from Vegan With a Vengeance. I used just one regular jalapeno pepper (instead of two chipotle ones), and it was still way too spicy for me. I really don't like spicy food. Other than that it turned out well, and Aaron does like spicy food. I added a few ingredients like an eggplant and some TVP. This was a really interesting dish, with lots of ingredients and flavours.

More beans!

I tried another new bean recipe yesterday. You're supposed to eat a ton of them for fiber and stuff. This time I made Larry's Re-Fried Beans from 'How it all Vegan.' (This was the first vegan cook book I ever bought and I'm still finding awesome new recipes in it.) They were really good. All the right herbs (including fresh cilantro, which I wouldn't have thought of on my own) and some tomato. You're supposed to mash them up with a fork after you cook them, but I just left them in bean form.
To go with the beans I made some fancy brown rice. It went like this: 1/2 cup short grain brown rice + half a cup wild brown rice, cooked in 3 cups of water with a tbsp of Omega 3 oil (a mix of flax seed oil, olive oil and grape seed oil that I bought), and 1 tsp marjoram. After it cooks, add 1 tsp salt and 1/4 cup (ish) of flax seeds.
Whole dish pictured above, plus peas.
Turned out really delicious. I ate it with some lemon juice squeezed on top, which worked better than I expected.

The adventure of the really fucking garlicy pesto

Today's meal was an adventure.
It started yesterday when I had my first day volunteering with a city of Toronto community stewardship program. I'm with the Spadina and Queens Quay wetlands team. It isn't really a wetland. It's just a little naturalized area right on the harbour. Animals and birds live there though, and it's a nice little spot. I might try going to some other sites also.
Anyways, it was mostly introduction this week, but we did pull some garlic mustard plants out. They're an invasive species that out-competes native plants and screws with the ecosystem. They are also edible. I took a bunch home, pulled off the young leaves, dumped the rest, and washed the plucked leaves by letting them soak for a few hours (changing the water twice).
Then I found a recipe for Zesty Tomato Pesto in 'Vegan with a Vengeance.' I picked it because it looked less fattening than most pesto recipes and I'm trying to drop some pudge.
So since the recipe I came up with was pretty different from the original 'Vegan with a Vengeance' recipe, here is the recipe for:
Super Fucking Garlicy Pesto
4 medium tomatoes (chopped)
1 bunch fresh spinach
1/2 cup green onions (chopped)
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp olive oil (I decreased this from the original 1/2 cup in order to decrease the numer of calories in the dish.)
4 cloves garlic (crushed or minced. I crushed them, which is one reason the dish was so increadibly garlicy.)
1/2 cup fresh garlic mustard leaves (This grows all over Ontario. It is a tallish, bendy plant with small white flowers. You can look it up on google. The young leaves can be plucked and used. Wash very well first.) or fresh basil leaves, if unavailable.
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Blend all of the ingredients in a blender, then heat and serve over whole wheat pasta.

Puppies and Mexican food

Today for lunch I had a simple mixed lettuce salad. I like having salads for lunch 'cause I'm never very hungry until the evening anyways so I prefer to have something light. You can't see it in the picture, but there's some really tasty oil and vinegar dressing on that lettuce. Also flax seeds.

Pictured below that is Aaron's Mr. Noodle Concoction of the Day.

Yesterday Aaron and I went to Sneaky Dee's (College and Bathurst) for lunch. Unfortunately I was dumb and forgot to bring my camera. The food was choice, though. We shared a plate of vegan nachos and a vegan fajita. Then for dessert (despite being totally stuffed already), I ordered a vegan cupcake. THEY HAVE VEGAN CUPCAKES! It was a Pumpkin Spice vegan cupcake to boot. So excellent I haven't words.

Today we went to the animal lovers rally in Queens Park. There were many small puppies. Above is a picture of me playing with one. Note the look of pure joy.

Just stuff

Yesterday I went to the Red Room for a friend's birthday. I got the Vegetable Stir Fry with Tofu. It came with white rice and they must have put like 10 cloves of garlic in it. Freaking amazing. (I just forgot the word cloves and had to look it up in a cookbook. My mind is starting to go.)
Late night snack was toast with margarine and raspberry jam.
They're out of vanilla soymilk at the store by my house, so I'm drinking my coffee with chocolate soymilk today. It's like a mocha.
We just finished the box of Wholegrain Premium crackers which I bought a little while ago. Those make for good snacking.
When I was little we used to call them "square crackers."
That's all for now!

Vegetables!

Today I had a really big job interview. It went really well. Hopefully I'll have a grown up job soon.

My weight has been bouncing around a lot in the past year, and I'm back up to being heavier than I want to be. SO my plan is to eat lots and lots of vegetables until I get a little bit skinnier again. I've been snacking a lot on salads and raw vegetables. Salads are good 'cause you can make them interesting with all sorts of weird ingredients. Veggies are good for dipping in hummus.

The picture above is from dinner last night. The first dish I made was a baked beans recipe from 'How it all Vegan.' This was my first time making baked beans and they turned out pretty good. Protein and fiber!!! I think this is also the first time I've served beans as their own dish. They make a great meat - substitute and are super filling.
I also made "Honey"-Lemon Carrots from the same book. The honey is actually maple syrup, so they should really just call them syrup-lemon carrots. Anyways they were really awesome too. I increased the amount of lemon juice in the recipe by a whole lot because they only said to put in a little bit and I like lemon. I now know about 4 ways to cook carrots all by themselves, all of which are delicious.
And finally, corn on the cob, which is in season again. Corn is always a good idea. ALWAYS.

Peace