Sylvita’s media consumption report / reviews?

Hey, so I’m really bad at titles, okay!

But anyway, here’s another blog post. I haven’t done much this week, as I mentioned last week, I’ve been kinda down with work. On the plus side, I have to add, despite some of the hard stuff, I do work with some really wonderful people. My frustration was starting to show and some of the folks I work with came to my side to ask me what they could do to help. One older volunteer even said “we’re family” and that just hit me right in the feels!

So yes, work has been tough, it continues to be, but I work with some great people and I guess I just need to get out of my own head, I need to not internalize so much and try to not take on everything myself. There are other lessons to be learned too I suppose and it is easier to say what I need to do than actually do it, but it’s a step.

So I didn’t really want to blog today, I felt like I didn’t have much to share, but then I want to keep up the one post per week momentum going.  I like talking to you all about the media I consume, ( i love books, movies, games, TV) so here are 3 things I’ve been getting into this week:

1) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the nickelodeon series)

My niece has spent the past two weekends at the house and one of the shows we use to get her to sit down and relax for 30 minutes straight is TMNT (also My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic). I grew up with the original TMNT so of course I was skeptical of the newer stuff… you know “kids these days! They can’t even have their own stuff, they’re recycling OUR stuff… arughrah!” But watching this series (and My Little Ponies too!) I realized, oh man, this series is (dare I say) even better than what I grew up with!  It really is.  The animation is slicker, the characters are more fully developed and the storylines get pretty epic. I thought, wow, this is pretty crazy, usually rehashes of old stuff tends to just produce mediocre content that bastardizes beloved franchises until it gets worse and worse. Like Star Wars. Though, if you know about the Star Wars Xmas special, that happened alot sooner for that franchise.

WTF is that Chewbacca has on?

But I thought about it and I remembered a while back as I was scouring artist work resource websites looking for a job, I remember seeing postings about Nickelodeon looking for animators to work on this new TMNT series. These people working on this show are my age! They grew up with the characters, they care about this silly little story about fighting mutant turtles with a rat dad! And so obviously, they created a show that, in my opinion, really lives up to it’s beginnings and even surpasses the original cartoon.  I’ve only seen a handful of episodes, but I genuinely enjoy watching it with the niece in a way that I just can’t with things like Mickey’s Clubhouse.

2) Classic NES games

So I went on a bit of a shopping spree in the 3ds E-shop the other day ($15 isn’t much of a “spree”, but it got me 3 games so it felt like it) and got 3 very classic NES titles: Metroid, Super Mario 3, and The Legend of Zelda.

I’ve played all three so far, spending more time with Zelda, because that game always sucks in your time somehow. It’s those dungeons, so addicting.  Anyway, one thing I noticed playing these (Mario 3 being the only one I had actually played as a kid) is that these games are SUPER HARD. But not in a “this is so hard it’s discouraging and I quit way” but in a “challenging, you can do it!” sort of way. I like it. These games don’t hold your hand… at all.. they don’t even offer any real hints whatsoever (except for maybe Zelda with the old men in the caves but those are few and far in between.)

Metroid for one, took me forever to get through one area because I couldn’t figure out how to turn into a ball, then after dying, I for some reason thought… maybe I should go left at the beginning? And sure enough, there was the item i needed to turn into a ball. My impulse to go right all the time got the better of me from the very beginning!

Then with Mario 3… it’s like he’s on skates, and you only start with 5 lives (which go pretty quickly) and every time you run out of lives, you have to start from the beginning! Geez! This one is an exercise in patience.

And Zelda, that game has no mercy with the amount of monsters constantly being thrown at you and no hint as to where things like a hidden passage might be.  I’ve gotten through 2 dungeons, but I think it’s just my knowledge of the Zelda formula that’s helped me get this far.

Maybe as I’ve gotten older, I appreciate feeling challenged and having to problem solve. Sure, there are games I enjoy for the simple decompression factor, like beating the crap out of people in Smash Bros., but I like stuff that makes you stop and think outside the box.

3) Youtube videos

Ah yes, Youtube, the land of crazy cat videos and cute babies that just sucks your time away. But really, if you dig a little deeper, you can find some really great channels and content that entertains, engages, and sometimes educates you! (Not to knock the crazy, silly videos, we all need a little bit of that in our lives)

Lately, I’ve been adding to my subscription list and I’ve found some great channels, from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight channel that posts videos each week from the political satire show, to Nerdy Nummies, a cute food decorating show where a girl named Rosanna Pansino shows you how to create sweets inspired by geeky pop culture favorites, to The Fung Bros, a comedy channel where two guys talk about and deconstruct Asian American culture,  or PBS Idea Channel which poses a thought provoking question using movies, television and what-have-you as a way to explain it, and one of my newer favorites Black Nerd Comedy, where Andre Meadows gives rants and raves about all things nerdy and retro (I like the nerd stuff, as you can tell).  There are plenty of others, I just have been particularly enjoying these more recently and perhaps I’ll talk about some others in the future.

So there’s the 3 things I’ve been enjoying this week, what about you?

-S

Sylvia’s Veg*n Food Reviews: Countdown to Thanksgiving

Hi folks, it’s been a while since I talked about food and with the start of fall (it still feels like summer here in LA) I am so looking forward to more crisp weather (the mornings and evenings have at least been cooler), overcast skies, and of course the holidays!

I know, I know, Halloween is coming up and everyone is getting their Sexy Olaf the snowman costumes ready, and yes, I love Halloween, but I really don’t look forward to it as much as I do Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is awesome, it involves lots of food, sitting around the table with family members, lots of food, anticipating what you’re going to get people for Christmas (or Hannukah, or Human Light, or Kwanza, what have you)… oh yeah and LOTS OF FOOD.

It’s no surprise I love Thanksgiving really, you guys know I like to eat and even though I’m a vegetarian and “Turkey Day” is pretty much how most people refer to the holiday… I’m here to say, Thanksgiving is just as enjoyable without the turkey.

Yup, every Thanksgiving, since 2009, I have passed on the turkey and every year, I find myself just as satisfied as I was in my omnivore days.  So today, I wanna talk to you guys about what I’m looking forward to having this Thanksgiving (t-minus 46 days). The great thing about my list is, you don’t have to be veg*n to enjoy, everyone can enjoy these things (in fact, that’s how it is with all veg*n food, duh… unless you have specific allergies) and maybe you have some go-to thanksgiving foods that are non-meat and would like to share, so let me know!

7. The cup of coffee after the meal (or second, or third meal)

In my aunt’s house, which is where we normally have our get togethers, it’s pretty routine to have a cup of coffee after we eat and have digested our food a bit. It’s really pretty much the only time I’ll have coffee at night.  Yes, you can have coffee any time of the day, month or year, but maybe it is the fact that I rarely have coffee late in the day and maybe it’s because it’s just nice to sit and have a coffee with my mom and my Tias… it’s just nice, and it’s just something I do find myself looking forward to, even amongst all the potatoes and pies and all that.

I usually have my coffee black, and black coffee is best with a piece of pie or a super sugary sweet, but if you really want to sweeten things, fellow vegans (or just plain non-dairy folks) should really try Soy creamer. Trader Joes has a pretty good soy creamer and Silk soy creamer is pretty tasty as well.  A little bit goes a long way… I will mention, I’ve tried Coconut milk creamers and it just tasted like plain coconut milk, so if you go that direction, try the flavored ones like vanilla, it’s much better.

6. Biscuits

I don’t care how you eat your biscuits… with butter, from the can, from scratch, with cranberry sauce, or by cutting them in half making a little thanksgiving sandwich (that’s me personally)… biscuits are the best and it really doesn’t need much further explanation than that.

5. Apple Pie

Pumpkin pie is good, yeah, but I am all about the apple pie.  My little sis even makes me a vegan crust sometimes when she makes me a pie (btw, my sister makes the best pies ever). Apple pie is so good, so savory and sweet, and cinnamon-y..mmmmm.  Apple pie is good in it’s natural vegetarian state (with butter and veg shortening), but if you like to keep Earth Balance around, there are lots of recipes online… unfortunately, not so many awesome little sisters willing to do the baking for you!

4. Green Bean Casserole

Speaking of sisters, my older sis, Pati (yeah the other one who writes on this blog) makes a BAGBC…. that’s BAD ASS GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE. I don’t know why, but Pati, being an omnivore and all… just makes the BEST veg*n foods… better than me and that’s like, my specialty.  Anyways, every year Pati makes the BAGBC but last year she had a baby so I had to take over and it was just GBC.  I made it totally from scratch (as Pati has done in the past) and since I took over, I made it completely vegan. I found a cream of mushroom recipe online… which turned out to be great but unfortunately, I lost the link…. the only thing that went wrong is my fried onlons burned a little on top. It was still good though and the best thing about making deceptively vegan foods is watching people eat it, be like “hmmp, disus goof” with their mouth full and all and then you say… “yeah.. I know… and… it’s VEGAN!”  diabolical laughter follows.

3. Sweet Potatoes

Just, sweet potatoes in general… that’s always a plus whether it’s in it’s french fry, puree, baked, or candied form, but on Thanksgiving I like ’em mashed. I usually just eat the mashed sweet potatoes alone, but combining them in with some classic mashed ‘tatoes, now that’s magical.

2. Gravy

My favorite: mushroom gravy. I make a mushroom gravy based on a recipe my mom uses. It includes wine (i’m a terrible cook cuz I can’t even remember what type of wine without looking for the recipe) it’s not too thick, it’s actually pretty thin, but it’s really good on top of my tofurky… speaking of which…

1. Tofurky

Yup, tofurky, that is my number one.  So some people might go, “lame, why do veg*ns even eat faux meat… that means you like meat! YOU’RE A PHONY”

Whoa whoa, put down the pitchforks, I will be the first to say, meat tastes good. But I don’t want to partake in eating it. Now, if I can get similar flavors and textures from a source that doesn’t conflict with my beliefs… and note, I said “similar” I don’t want to have something exact because if it’s too close, then I get a little paranoid about what I’m eating. I really enjoy faux meat products… another argument I get is that faux meat is not exactly heatlhy, to which I say, yeah I know, I don’t refrain from meat because I want to stay in shape, though that is a nice side effect.  I know eating too much processed food is bad, but I don’t eat it all the time, and hey, when thanksgiving rolls around, I want me some Tofurky.

And for those who doubt the wonder that is Tofurky, I’m a big fan of Turtle Island, the company that makes the products. Their foods are always well made and taste wonderful. High quality faux meat folks.  If people didn’t get so offended by faux meats, they would discover tofurky is really good in it’s own right.  It’s not turkey, of course it isn’t!  But if you stop trying to think that this is somehow supposed to magically be something it isn’t, you would find that it’s this really good, savory protein that tastes great with gravy and potatoes. My little sis and my uncle both eat turkey at thanksgiving, but they also grab a slice of my tofurky each year because they like it for what it is. So this year, if you have a veg*n friend that brings a tofurky, get your jokes in, fine… but then have a taste… you might like it, you might not… but chances are, you will like it!

So that’s my list of Thanksgiving foods, what are you looking forward to?

Sylvia’s Vlog 2: Veggie Burgers, Coffee, and Video Games

My second video blog!

In which I talk about veggie burgers, pretty meh coffee, and video games (A Link Between Worlds and a bit about Super Mario 3D Land).

The book that I referenced is called “The Strange Tale of Panorama Island” by Suehiro Maruo, which you can find here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Strange-Tale-Panorama-Island/dp/0867197773

and the “90s kid” thing that I sorta referenced can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115341/

🙂

Cookin’ time: vegetarian scramble

The weekend always calls for a warm, hearty start.

Ingredients:
Extra firm tofu
Morningstar sausage (vegetarian)
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Paprika
Italian seasoning
Fresh basil to garnish
Sauteed in olive oil.

Sylvia’s Veg*n Food Reviews: Sweet Earth Curry Recipe Seitan

Hey Pati, (and others reading this blog)

So sorry for the hiatus… you know how it is… Family Days approach at the museum and I’m completely useless and non-productive in all other aspects of my life for like a week.

But I’m getting the hang of it, so it shouldn’t be a permanent thing (hopefully, that would suck, seeing as they’re monthly).

So this week, I decided to do another food review since I went shopping today and got something totally different: Seitan.

I’ve never bought seitan, it’s usually pricey and I tried to make it from scratch twice to underwhelming results. I bought this stuff, curry seitan by Sweet Earth.

I love curry, I’m no expert on it, but I do enjoy most things curry…. I once had curry flavored popcorn… hooo mama!

Anyway, this stuff comes in about 4 rectangles, that you can chop up. I took 2 rectangles and sliced them into thin squares and made simple skillet dish with some chopped veg (broccoli, cauliflower, and snap peas).

I kept the seasoning light, with only some salt and pepper (mainly for the veg) because I wanted to taste the full curry potential of this seitan… it was very aromatic from opening the package, so I knew it would be packed with flavor.

I served it on a bed of seasoned cous cous (salt, pepper, paprika) and dug in.

 

The texture was good, firm and kinda spongey (in a good way) very aromatic, as curry should be, and it took everything in my power not to scarf down my bowl.  It was a very yummy dish, for being so simplistic and easy to make.

My rating: 10/10

I’ll be buying this stuff again, I could see it being good in a sandwich.

Any suggestions or products I should try for future posts?

P.S.

1) sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures, I really should start using a legit camera on this blog.

2) I wanna share a little thing that made me smile today (as this blog is about enjoying the little things) so here you go, a video of a schnauzer freaking out and fainting from happiness when she reunites with her owner after 2 years apart!  (She’s okay now!)

Sylvita: Origins

So this week, there’s no Veg*n Review, instead, I thought I’d take a note from my sis and do a little intro.

I’m Sylvia, I’m the younger sister, I work in a museum, and I don’t really have a stablized family life like Pati. No kid, no husband, no house, just me, a single gal taking on the world!

Or if my life were a movie, that’s how it’d be marketed… the truth is, my life is pretty meh and I feel like I’m at that point where I’m just starting out!

It’s exciting and scary. I was one of those “lucky” twenty somethings who graduated college right in the depths of the economic downturn and so it took me three, almost four, years to get a full time job.  (now that I think of it… I coulda been a doctor by now!… oh well, I feel like I earned a doctorate in LIFE, okay?)

That time in between graduating and finally landing the job of my dreams built character, to say the least. (it really is the job of my dreams, considering that I was ready to take a job at a gym or a fast food place if I could’ve landed one). So, now when I come across a youngin’ complaining about their entry-level job they’ve had right out of graduation (which I have encountered recently)… I just roll my eyes way out into space. Kids these days… pssh!

Anyway, so you got the idea right? I’ve had a bit of an extended adolesence, like many in my generation… living at home well into my mid to late twenties… (I’ve spent the last year living with Pati though, so it was kinda like an experiment in independence) but I do plan on moving back with my parents soon so I can save up to finally strike out on my own.

But as I’ve said earlier, and as Calvin’s dad always said (from Calvin and Hobbes) “It builds character!” And I’m really glad I went through what I did post-graduation, I feel tough… like built Ford Tough. I can take on anything man, and it feels good!

So what’s it like to work in a museum? Well, first off, I don’t work in curatorial, as 90% of people assume… museums don’t run on curators alone folks! In fact, the musuem I work at has no permanent curator! But that’s more to do with the museum recovering from the economic downturn which saw half of the staff laid off a few years ago… thus, a lot of the people who work there “wear a lot of hats”… which is a nice way of saying: everyone’s a bit overworked.

I wear many hats myself; I work in Education, Public Programs, and a little bit of Visitor Services. I get to interact with schools, families, and everyday patrons, and I love it.   Yes, it is stressful quite often, but the place is great. My co-workers are all really cool, the volunteers are really sweet, and there are days where I think: “I can’t believe I work here!”

It’s been six months (three months full-time) since I started with the museum, and so I’m still getting my sea legs… which leads me to the other side of me which has been neglected a lot lately: the artist side.

I like to consider myself an artist, and I guess a crafter as well, and usually, I’ve always got some kinda project on the back burner. That’s where this blog comes in. While Pati is using this blog as motivation to organize her home life, I’m gonna use this blog to motivate my creative life. And of course, food plays a big part, hence the veg*n stuff.

So that’s just the jist of my origin story. I’m excited to share more!

Cheers!

Sylvia’s veg*n food reviews: Victoria Vegan Alfredo Sauce

Oh Sprouts, I love that place, so many great vegan specialty goods available there and they have great produce (I get all of my fruit and veg there).  Unfortunately, I’ll be moving soon and so I won’t be so close to a Sprouts anymore, so in the meantime, every week, I’m going to treat myself to at least one vegan specialty item. This week was Victoria Vegan’s Alfredo Sauce.

Let’s just get this out of the way before we get onto the actual quality of the product… I hate the packaging, why is there a woman with presumably no top on holding little pasta shells?? Is this how you get an edge in the sauce selling game? Anyway…

I ended up buying some Hodgson Mill veggie noodles (because the price was right and it sounded healthy), they were rotini made with beet, tomato and spinach.

Cooked it all up, added some broccoli and voila:

looks as good as it tastes!

So first off, the alfredo sauce was good, and the only downside I could say is that it was a bit thin.  I always think of alfredo sauce as being thick and creamy.  A good solution to this would be to add some soy milk (or whatever milk of your choice) and maybe a tablespoon of nutritional yeast (something every veg*n should have in their pantry). The noodles were good too, although I wasn’t exactly fond of the beet noodles… or maybe I’m just biased against beets! I can’t really stand ’em.

All in all, despite the terrible packaging, Victoria Vegan makes a pretty good sauce which is good to buy in a pinch (and when it’s on sale).  I do prefer to make sauces from scratch, but for convenience purposes, this is a good choice.

My rating: 9 out of 10, since it requires adjustments, unless you like thin sauce.

 

 

 

Sylvia’s veg*n food reviews: Helen’s Kitchen Organic Veggie Carnitas

So I’m a veg*n. What’s that little star there for you ask? Well, that’s a way that I’ve noticed those in the veg community like to refer to both vegan and vegetarian… without having to say “vegan and vegetarian”… which can be annoying  to type all the time.

I started taking animal products out of my diet back in 2008 and gradually got to the point where I am now, which is primarily a vegan diet, with the occasional animal product (such as cookies and Morning Star Blackbean burgers, which last I checked, have egg as a binder). Because of those occasional treats, I don’t call myself vegan, but I definitely strive to be. So yes, that is why I like to identify as veg*n… online at least… I have no idea how you would pronounce that in real life (Veg-asterisk-en???).

Anyway, you’ll all probably hear more veg*n rants from me as this blog progresses, but right now… let’s get down to business.

CARNITAS.

As a Mexican-American, this was a food I grew up with and loved! Carnitas are soooo good! So savory and like all food bad for you, mouth wateringly delicious. But is the taste worth the guilt of eating a poor pig? In my case, no (along with lots of other meat products I’ve given up) And sure, I can live without ever having another carnitas taco again, there are lots of other foods I enjoy just as much, but there are times when I think, “man, too bad there aren’t any vegan equivalents to them”.

So of course, when I did my grocery shopping for the week and found these bad boys:

I had to try them.

Normally, I don’t buy too many veggie-meat products. One, because they tend to be expensive, and two, even when an item is meatless, processed food is still not good to have on a regular basis. I get most of my protein from Tofu, Tempeh, nuts and beans… but I thought, might as well try them!

My first impression was… this is a pretty small package and $5??? They better be good! Upon opening the package, they lumped right out onto the pan like … well, I’m not gonna sugar coat it… it looked like dog food, but I still kept my hopes up (plenty of foods look unappetizing before they’re cooked anyway).

Sure enough, as soon as they started to brown, my appetite grew back as the soy carnitas started to look… well… more carnita-y.

I heated up some corn tortillas and added a few toppings (cilantro, salsa, and Daiya cheese) and boom! Carnita tacos for the first time in six years!

kept the ingredients pretty simple, just cilantro, cheese and some salsa, though next time I’d like to add cabbage.

So how were they?

By themselves, they had a good texture and taste, though I tasted a bit too much lime flavor. Together with all the toppings, it was delicious… my sister took a bite and even said she couldn’t really tell the difference. Oh and I’ll also note that the package was deceptively small, the portion is actually pretty big and I got full off of two tacos, with more than half of the package left for at least another two meals this week.

The only downside to these carnitas is that one of the ingredients is lime, and man, could you taste the lime. It was too limey in my opinion, and I don’t understand why it would be part of the package when lime is one of those ingredients that’s best fresh.

Really, if I want lime in my tacos, I’ll put lime in my tacos. That’s the only thing holding these carnitas back. But do I recommend them, sure! If you find yourself in the mood for tacos… they’re a good choice for taco night.

So there you have it, if you’re looking for pretty decent vegan carnitas, Helen’s Kitchen has em’… but seeing as they’re the only brand I’ve seen that makes them, it’s really your only choice and I hope you really like lime!

My Rating: 8 out of 10, btw, I found them at Sprouts.

-Sylvia