Of Turkey's and being Thankful

This year, for the first time I made a Thanksgiving Turkey. I had a whole feast with my friends. And let me tell you I was scared out of my wits-because quite honestly I never had made a Turkey before. But after various facetimes with my father, advice from grandma and my aunt I just had to close my eyes and hope for the best. I powered through. And you know what my Turkey was awesome :). My stuffing was legendary, and the cherry cobbler was to die for. When a friend, who usually only eats one portion, eats 2 1/2 you best believe that it was delicious.

I am extremely thankful that when I decide to cook something so intricate and difficult that I manage without any trouble. I could've failed miserably but instead it was a success. I am thankful for my father who had the patience to deal with my 50thousand questions, and my mother who kept re-directing me to him. And because this reminded me how much I enjoy cooking/baking I decided to make a lemon cake today for my friends Llea's birthday and I hope it also turns out delicious.
Something else I learned, when after the party you are left with a mound of dishes-it is best to do said dished immediately! I decided last night that if I waited I would wake up and feel that daunting feeling of not being able to do anything until the work was done, but desperately looking for other things to do, instead I did all of the dishes immediately and I woke up refreshed and happy :)!
Sometimes it's the little things in life-now I will begin counting down the days until I get to fly home!! I'm super excited to see my family :), though I think this thanksgiving my friends were like my little family and I'm a pure ball of happiness!!

Accountability

Today I want to talk about a little word: accountability! What does it mean to you? To me it means that you have to answer to yourself for your actions. Of course there are other people we answer to: our boss, our teacher, our parents etc. but in this case I want to talk about answering to yourself. When I was younger, my daddy always told me: You can lie to me all you want, but you cannot lie to yourself. Yet that is exactly what we do oh so often. If you want to change something, then you have to be able to be accountable to yourself, if you want others to depend on you, and look to you for answers, you first have to answer to yourself. So I guess what I am getting at is, that lately I have not been so Vegan, or even Vegetarian for that matter-not at my house and not outside my house, yet I spend all this time telling myself, no no this is just a small slip up. Well no more, I decided I needed to get back on track and that starts now-with me making sure that I answer to myself, I do for myself what is best for me!
One of the reasons I write this, is because I have seen some changes since I've had a few "slip-ups" the biggest is that I've had migraine like headaches (though only 2 thus far) both have come with problems in my vision, making everything blurry and my prescription seeming to be a totally different one. There are many reasons why this can happen, however, as my cousin pointed out to me this weekend, and my optomologist before it can have something to do with your blood sugar levels. If all I eat is crap, and I don't keep a good schedule, and on top of that overdose on sugar-should I really be surprised by these headaches? I don't think so...this is why I will return to my old new eating habits. In order to get up to a new and good start tomorrow-I have put some overnight oats into the refrigerator (if they turn out yummy I'll give more on that) and I made vegan banana bred for snacking. Though I will not be able to eat vegan all week-as it is Thanksgiving and I am making a big Turkey, with stuffing, mashed taters, and cauliflower I will do my darndest to stay healthy until then. If not vegan at least I need to be conscious about what I am putting into my mouth-though I think that I prefer the vegan/vegetarian diet for most of my meals!!
I will be accountable to myself, and if I don't feel well-I should probably look at what I've eaten (is that a food diary in my future? who knows...)

Budgeting 101

So I found out recently, that due to change in administration by contract will not be fully extended. I will keep half of my hours, but loose the other half, this means that I also loose half of my money. Of course I am searching for a job to make up this money-but in the case that I am not immediately successful I have to keep a close eye on my money.
I have noticed recently, that I do not pay much attention to how my cash is allocated. It does not make a difference wether it is actually cash, or money from my card. I have a ballpark idea how much I have left but I do not always now how much I have spend and what I am spending it on. And as anyone who has read anything about budgeting and keeping track of your money knows-step 1 is to write down every little penny you spend. So instead of using budgeting apps on my ipad, as I originally planned a year ago-I will start with exactly that as of now I will write down every cent and where it is going. This way I will hopefully be able to look at what I have spend, and why I have spend it and where I need to improve my expenditures. If I am successful with just this one simple mission-keep track of the money I can follow that up by allocating money to specific needs. But as with everything start small. If you start too big, it is easier to feel overwhelmed and give up and now more than ever that should not be an option.
Wish me luck :)

You Are What You Eat

It is amazing how after weeks, months of eating semi-health conscious-and predominantly vegan, one weekend of meat filled foods does not make you feel good. I have talked before how I'm enjoying the veganing, and at least mostly eating healthy meals-but a couple of weeks ago I went to go visit my grandmother, and it seemed easier for her to just leave my diet as it always was, eating whatever she put on the table. After the first 24 hours I felt tired and sluggish, and by the time I got back to my own place I was simply exhausted. I have not needed so many naps, and so many hours of sleep in the lasts months as I needed that weekend, so I guess the saying "you are what you eat" rings true. I am not saying that vegan is the one and only answer to healthy happy living, but I am saying that a diet high in fruits and vegetables is.
In order to eat such a diet, I have started browsing the frozen vegetable section as well as finding cheap but good fresh produce. Most of my produce comes from a little lebanese shop down the street from me, but if I want more variety I will have to go to the local market-good thing that it runs three days a week! Though, I have learned that frozen is also good, and sometimes even better. For instance, I have recently acquired a taste for brussels sprouts-yes I know shocking. But these little beasts are hard to cook, and if you do it wrong they taste bitter-however, if you have frozen brussels sprouts it takes away all of the bitterness as they have been pre-cooked in a certain way. Let me just tell y'all yummm-o.
Another thing, when eating well-and mostly vegan is that I have to constantly cook. Cooking on my current schedule is not really easy, but I do have a favorite new meal that is quick easy and extremely filling. Whenever I do not know what to do, or I'm in a time crunch I make myself peanut butter sauce with broccoli, brussels sprouts and spaghettis, and when I have them I toast some fresh peanuts-it is one of the most delicious and easy meals to make!!!!
That's all for now