Hi, internet. It’s been awhile. I think I don’t update this as often as I would like because I always want to wait to make an update until I have photographs of the things I’ve been making. And I don’t photograph the things I’ve been making because I’m lazy. It’s a vicious cycle!

I’m excited about Thanksgiving. We’re having it over my aunt’s house, and I told my parents that I was excited about cooking my own food to bring over there and make people eat. My mother is adorable and has been secretly researching vegan recipes that she and my dad could make to bring over for everyone. I am not one hundred percent sure of what I want to bring yet… I have a long list of things I’d like to make, but I am pretty broke all of the time and can’t afford to cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner myself. So far I just know that I want to bring a baguette and some Earth Balance over because I am hopelessly addicted to bread and Earth Balance. And I’m going to make mashed sweet potatoes with chopped up cranberry pieces. And… I don’t know what else. Either brownies or cupcakes… brownies are ridiculously easy to make (I use the recipe for Crumb-Topped Brownies from My Sweet Vegan. These are the only vegan brownies I’ve ever had or made, and I’m in no rush to change that. They are so, so good. I never add the instant coffee, though. Also sometimes I throw in walnuts, because I am a maverick. … … I am really very tired of the word “maverick.”) Um! So yeah. Leaning toward the brownies because my cabinets are always ready for brownies to be made, and all I have to do is run to the store for a cup of black cherry soy yogurt. But! I also always have things for cupcakes hanging around, and cupcakes are adorable and fun to decorate. And I finally got around to getting tips and icing bags and things so that I could play around with that, and I haven’t tested anything out yet, which feels like a sin, so… maybe… I’ll just eat brownies and cupcakes for Thanksgiving.

Problem solved!

I’ll post a real update soon! I know that every update so far has said that, but I mean it this time. I have a pear sitting in my apartment waiting for me to make gingerbread pear muffins. I found a recipe in Better Homes & Gardens while I was loitering in the break room at work and it looks ridiculously easy to convert into being vegan, so. I think that will be the next thing I bake. I might make those tonight, actually.

Real updates soon! This semester of school is almost done and then I’ll stop being sleepy all of the time! I think.

Hi, Internet! Did you miss me? It’s okay; Mama’s home. I brought some vegan chili home for you. It’s in the fridge. You’re going to have to heat that up yourself, though, because I am exhausted.

Um! Today I made lazy vegan chili with my friend Patrick. Lately I have been making a bunch of cheap and easy vegan meals for… lazy, poor people. Such as myself. Cheap vegan chili consists of store-bought chili-in-a-can stuff. The vegetarian chili is actually vegan. And has TVP in it. And is… not that fulfilling, it looked like. But my friend Patrick cut up some fresh green bell pepper and half of an onion for me, and we added that. And then he demanded that I add a can of diced tomatoes with garlic and herbs, and so I added that, too. And then I added salt and cinnamon. And then I added a cup of TVP. And I ate it with wheat crackers. And it was delicious. I couldn’t finish the bowl I made for myself because I had been eating roasted garlic & chive hummus with baby carrots the entire time I was cooking. I fail at being an adult and cooking dinner.

Tomorrow is pay day! This means that I will have money for new groceries, which is more exciting than the whole being-able-to-pay-bills thing, I think. Before I go grocery shopping, I spend hours going through blogs and cookbooks I’ve gotten from the library and I scribble down ideas for things to make. And then I go grocery shopping and wind up making everything within the first two days of having all of this food. And then… I spend the next two weeks eating Amy’s Thai Coconut soup and eating bread with Earth Balance. Not even toast. So this week, I am going to try to not make poor decisions and will attempt to come up with some sort of meal plan. I will try to write about it in here so that if I make some very obvious poor decisions, Stephanie can yell at me. Or, you know. I could see what I did wrong. I am pretty sure that I need to stop buying fresh vegetables all at once. I should pick produce up from the store right before I need to use it. This conflicts with my intense urge to only get produce from the farmer’s market, which is actually practically right up the street from my apartment but is only open on weekends. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. I could always freeze things.

Also I need to find my camera’s battery so I can post adorable photographs of the cuter things I’m eating. Like the dark chocolate strawberry preserve cookies I made yesterday for dinner. Mmm.

…Okay, goodbye! I will get better at writing in here on a day that is not today. <3

INTERNET!
Hi. :)
Um.
So.
I have had this space for awhile. There used to be entries here. Entries that were essentially lists of things that I wanted to make, and was making. I used to have up pictures of a painting of Tupac on velvet that I’d made for a friend; so much time has gone by that I’ve since finished the painting, moved in with that friend, and hung the painting in our kitchen.
I’m bad at keeping up with things. I’m bad with sticking to things, finishing thoughts and ideas, making series of things, not procrastinating, replying to things, responding to things, updating spaces.
But.
I very recently decided to become vegan (today is actually my one month anniversary). And this change has been a lot easier than I’d anticipated. And lately I have been sticking with things [doing well in school, going for jogs, eliminating all animals and animal by-products from my diet - before last month, I had still been eating meat, even though I had been vegetarian before. I decided to go from omnivore to vegan instead of omnivore to vegetarian to vegan because… I was just… done. I knew that I was eventually going to go vegan, anyway, so why not just make the change now? The more I ate my “lasts” of things in the days leading up to “the switch,” (when I was able to afford to go grocery shopping) the more disgusted I grew with milk and eggs, anyway.]
Um! I kind of tend to ramble. Where was I?
Oh! So. So I want to make this space about being a vegan lady and trying out recipes and about how going to school for baking and pastry arts while being vegan is (this semester is easy because I’m not taking any actual baking classes) and about where to eat out in Raleigh, North Carolina. And. So. Yeah. I don’t know. I’m excited. Adventure! Et cetera. I had originally wanted to start this on Day One of “the switch,” but… I am lazy. So. There’s that. I don’t know. I have a thousand things that I want to say, but I think that I’ll end this post here and just make separate entries for each thing that I want to talk about so that I don’t burn out in one entry. :)
All right, internets. Take it easy.
Love,
Jennifer Lynn Crowley