Hello everyone!

I apologize for my disappearance.  I had a lot to handle at school these past two weeks.  I apologize for my lack of posts.  Fear not! I am here to offer more guidance on Veggie eating!

Lately I have been on the go and getting a meal in has been really difficult.  It is really important especially for vegetarians to get proper nutrition especially protein.

Breakfast, my favorite meal of the day, is the hardest meal to not rush through. I am usually in a rush and I have little time to put together something decent for breakfast.  Lately I have eaten Life Cereal with berries (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries or blackberries) with a drizzle of honey and soy milk. For my protein I heat up some Morningstar Vegetarian Sausages and I am good to go.  I am usually full for most of the morning and then try to snack on an orange or some type of fruit with Wheat Thins on the side.

I do admit that I love junk food.  It is hard not to especially when there is so much of it around on a college campus.  Today I was a little bad and ordered some chinese food. I ordered from Number One Kitchen, a cheap and quick Chinos joint. My regular dish, tofu and broccoli with garlic was the dish of choice today.  I asked them to spice it up but unfortunately they took it as make it more greasy.  I wanted to barf at the amount of oil and sauce they put in my dish.  I had to strain most of it out and by the time I finished I barely wanted to touch it.  Maybe next time I can ask for less sauce.

This weekend is Valentines Day and I am looking forward to eating and making good food for my boyfriend and I.

I feel inclined to bake, let us see what I concoct in the next few days.

I will write a longer post later.

But for now…

Peace, love and NO BEEF!

GK

My roommate and I are watching the Grammy’s and were in need of dinner but wanted to make minimal effort.  I concocted the easiest and fastest nachos so we could get to the eating faster as well as watching the Grammy’s.

Guramrit’s Easy Peasy Vegetarian Nachos

1/2 bag of Tostito Chips

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup of halved baby tomatoes

1 can of black beans

1/2 cup of frozen corn

1/2 onion diced

2 tablespoons of taco seasoning

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Put a layer of chips on the bottom of the pan (save some to put on top).  Rinse beans and add 1 tablespoon of taco seasoning. Set aside.

3. Take frozen corn and halved tomatoes and mix with the remaining tablespoon of taco seasoning.

4. Add beans, corn, diced onions and tomatoes to the top of the chips.  Add shredded cheese.  Add rest of chips and add more cheese.

5. Bake in oven for 15 minutes.

6. Serve with Salsa and enjoy! Yumo!

Look out for more good veggie treats.

Peace, love and no beef.

GK

P.S. Watch the Grammy’s!

Yes I just made up my own word but that is how I felt today when I grab a wrap for lunch.  I am not a big fan of eating sandwiches besides a bagel with cream cheese. In general I do not eat a great deal of bread.

Today I enjoyed a simple wrap.  Usually when I order sandwiches at home in the Bronx I am questioned heavily about my choice to not include meat on my sandwich.  Apparently a sandwich is not a sandwich without the deli sliced meat.  WRONG! All you need are a few ingredients and you are set.

One of my favorite ingredients on a sandwich is pesto sauce.  For my sandwich today I chose a pesto-garlic wrap with pesto sauce, provolone cheese, tomatoes and lettuce.  For some reason I cannot picture this sandwich as complete without having it grilled.  The cheese melts and the pesto sauce heats up the wrap and oozes into your mouth with every bite you take.  My mouth is watering as I am writing this.

It is a sensational combination for a wrap/sandwich.  The best part is that the wrap is light and not as heavy as regular bread.

It was filling but I was not overly stuffed.  Wraps at SU come with pickles and chips.  For today I decided against chips and went straight for the pickle. YUM YUM YUM. My stomach is still happy.

If you’re ever looking for more veggie friendly sandwiches try adding more veggies to the sandwich and replacing the meat.  Think cheese, lettuce and tomato!

For now I will leave your mouthes watering.

Peace, love and No beef.

GK

P.S. Look out for my upcoming post comparing Morningstar and Boca!

I am so sorry for writing a post so late.  I am still getting adjusted to being back at school. From now on there will be no more excuses! I promise!

While I was at home during winter break, the Food Network was pulled from Cablevision because of a dispute.  It was devastating.  I watch the Food Network practically everyday.  I cannot live without it for one day.  Fortunately my school’s basic free cable provided us with the luxury of the Food Network.

The Food Network currently lacks a completely vegetarian friendly television show.  It’s a dream of mine to be one of the first chefs to have a veggie cooking show.  Right now it seems like a stretch but hey, anything is possible.  I religiously watch the Food Network and am highly offended that no one has dedicated many episodes to vegetarian cuisine. No offense Food Network but one episode per show does not cut it.  Although I feel the Food Network lacks in veggie friendliness I was actually surprised to see one of my favorite chefs dedicate an episode to vegetarians.  It was unexpected but none the less exciting.

Last week while lying on the couch I came across a rare special on Vegetarian cooking.  Giada De Laurentiis, my favorite chef on the Food Network (famous for her shows Everyday Italian and Giada At Home) had an entire episode on Everyday Italian for Vegetarian food.  Although I was groggy from the busy day I sat up immediately and watched closely.

The dishes that she chose were pretty bizarre but that does not mean that I would not give it a try.  She definitely puts an Italian twist on everything she does and being a fan of Italian food I would not hesitate to try these dishes in the future.

For inquiring minds take a look at the website and the recipes she has.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/everyday-italian/giadas-vegetarian-favorites/index.html

Being vegetarian does not mean all deliciousness disappears, as Giada says.

I’ll let you know when I try it out on my own.

Peace, love and no beef.

GK

One of the most difficult things about being in college is the inability to eat well at a decent price.  Dining hall food just doesn’t cut it and sometimes it is really hard to get yourself to cook a decent meal.  Being a vegetarian in college is even more difficult. My mother worries excessively about my eating habits up at school.

I usually lose a lot of weight because I am usually on the go and forget to eat. As a vegetarian college student my two basic staples are cereal and pasta.  I could practically live off of those two things.

No, I do not eat those two things every single day but it is a major part of my diet aside from fruits and plenty of frozen veggies (try Green Giant Steam Bags- really easy to make and so yummy). Cereal and pasta is easy to make and super cheap.  When cereal and pasta does not cut it I go out to eat on Marshall Street or most recently the Inn complete on South Campus (Syracuse University).

Some suggestions for a decently priced veggie meal are  below:

Pita Pit – Try their humus pita, it costs $5 and you can put all the veggies and cheese you like

Samrat- Although the food is mild in flavor for indian food, this is a great place to go if you crave a little spice especially for a lunch.  The lunch buffet costs $7.  Grab a mango lassi (an indian version of a milkshake) and you are good to go.

SyraJuice- located on Marshall Square Mall, they have amazing Smoothies and Burritos for under $5!

Bleu Monkey Sushi- Although I do not eat fish, there are many veggie rolls available as well as salads.  I usually go for the avocado or cucumber,eat go for about $2-$3.

The Inn Complete- on South Campus, it is convenient for people who live nearby and the best part is they take SU Super Card money.  Today I ordered a Veggie quesadilla with a side of french fries (soooo good).  The quesadilla had cheddar cheese with tomatoes, jalapeñoes and green peppers with a side of sour cream and salsa.  It was a tad spicy but I love heat in my food.  The best part was cooling it off with chocolate lava cake for dessert.

Aladdin’s- my new favorite place.  What I like is the variety of foods available from falafel to Pitas to Pasta, Pizza and Salad.  The most expensive dish is $13 but thats probably a meat dish.  I recently tried their Falafel salad. It is $6.95 with your choice of salad dressing and cheese.  It was incredibly filling but also delicious.  For a more middle eastern taste, I chose their tahini-yogurt dressing with feta cheese.  

Compliments of my Blackberry and Aladdin’s Restaurant

If I come across anything new during my first week back I will definitely post it!

Bon chance dans votre classes! (Good luck in your classes, yes I am practicing my french) And remember, you will find no beef here! GK