Peanut Butter Chunk, Chocolate Swirl Vegan Ice Cream

...and the award for the longest title ever goes to this post right here!

Anyways, for the past year I've been dying to get an ice cream maker so I could make different types of vegan ice creams and sorbets. For my birthday, Lauren got me a Cuisinart Stainless-Steel Ice Cream Maker and I've been so excited to try my hand at various ice cream concoctions. I found this on Pinterest, so I decided to start my research there.

I learned that fat is needed to achieve the desired creamy texture of real ice cream. As much as I dislike it, coconut milk is the best vegan ingredient for this needed fat. Because I don't really care for the taste of coconut, I added extra vanilla to mask its flavor.

I decided to begin my ice cream adventure with a recipe from Edible Perspective. I did however use store bought peanut butter, and I used vanilla extract instead of a vanilla bean. I also used regular refined sugar instead of coconut sugar, and left out the coconut oil from the chocolate mixture. I spread out my peanut butter mixture thinner than the recipe called for, so I didn't get true chunks of peanut butter in my ice cream, but it was still really good. If you leave out the chocolate and peanut butter, this recipe also serves as a good vanilla base that I'll be using in the future for different combinations of add-ins. I'm thinking cookie dough!

This recipe made about 1.5 quarts, so I ended up with a lot leftover. I also received an insulated ice cream container for my birthday so that I can freeze the extra ice cream. It's awesome, mainly because it's orange, but also because it allows me to travel with my ice cream. I drove 45 minutes with the ice cream in the container, and it was still frozen by the time I got to my destination. Very cool if you ask me! Did you catch that pun?

    

Wicked 'Wich

Today I went to lunch at Wicked 'Wich in Sacramento's Downtown Plaza. I've been wanting to try their food as soon as I read their menu and discovered they offer several vegan options (they have omnivore food too). Not only are there multiple vegan choices, but their vegan patties are made from scratch! I always appreciate companies that support veganism and so I was really excited to try their food.

I selected the "Tree Hugger" sandiwch for lunch, with a side of black pepper garlic fries to share. The "Tree Hugger" is served on sourdough bread with a scratch-made vegan patty (tofu and veggies I think), vinaigrette cabbage slaw, hand cut fries, Daiya vegan cheese, and secret vegan "Wich sauce".

The sandwich was so good! The cheese was perfectly melted (I always have problems trying to get vegan cheese to melt all the way), the bread was toasted just right, and the overall flavor of the meal was tasty. I had just finished running 9.5 miles so I had a huge appetite, and I was afraid I'd still be hungry after my sandwich. Boy was I wrong. I couldn't even finish it all; I had like one bite left, but I was stuffed! That's a good thing ;)

Even though my sandwich had fries in it, Lauren wanted to try the black pepper garlic fries. I LOVE garlic, so of course I couldn't pass those up either. I think it's awesome that they cut their own potatoes for the fries and cook all of their food from scratch. You can definitely taste the difference between frozen and fresh food. The garlic fries were really good too, just a little on the oily side.

Their restaurant is located in the downtown mall food court, so it's a little out of the way. They had great customer service and delicious vegan food, so I'll definitely be coming back.

Happy August!

I'm getting super excited for the next few weeks!

Camping in Guerneville
Making lots of birthday presents
Running, running, and more running
More baking and cooking
Sewing clothes
Knitting colorful cowls
Cross stitching my Summer Sampler
Bunco night 

And I have a new goal: be able to do a round off back handspring. I've got the round off down, now I just need to learn how to do a back hand spring...

...andddd, check out this cool picture I drew...I'm very proud of myself :)

 

23 Things

Since I'm turning 23 today, I decided to share 23 somewhat interesting things about my current self...

1. This is the first year that I actually made a birthday wish list.
2. I can't watch scary movies or shows. I love the plots of thrillers, but I'll have nightmares for weeks. I love Criminal Minds and Law and Order: SVU, but even those shows give me nightmares.
3. I got a toe ring for my birthday last year, and I haven't taken it off since.
4. I've only been camping in a tent once. I'll be going for a second time at the end of August though!
5. I love doing the laundry. I love separating clothes into piles, loading them into the washing machine and dryer, and putting them away. I just love washing clothes. I had a front loading washing machine for a year in college and I loved sitting in front of it, watching the colorful clothes spin. Seriously.
6. I like to quote "Mean Girls", even though it annoys people. I can't help it sometimes.
7. I'm afraid of almost all animals.
8. Someday I want to be able to do handstand pushups.
9. When I find a shirt that I really love, I want to buy it in every color.
10. I'm allergic to almost every tree, grass, and cats. I'm also allergic to soy, wheat, corn, and most nuts, according to a blood test. I tried eliminating those foods from my vegan diet and I felt like I was going to die after a week, so I still eat all of those foods. I carry an EpiPen around, just in case.
11. My favorite salad dressing is Annie's Goddess Dressing. So good!!
12. I have a callous on my middle finger of my right hand from writing too much in school. 
13. I like the volume on my car radio to be on an even number.
14. I recently heard that there's a gene that causes people to have dry earwax, if they are recessive for this trait. Recessive people also don't have bad body odor. Guess what? I have dry earwax. I don't smell bad. Very cool! Don't believe me? Look!
15. I'm currently eating bananadoodle cookies.
16. I get to buy new running shoes once I've put 400 miles on my current ones. Only 170 more miles!
17. I'm pretty sure I have flat feet.
18. All my cousins on my mom's side are boys; all my cousins on my dad's side are girls.
19. I broke my toe jumping off a moving jet ski.
20. I used to hate hummus. Now, I can't eat a sandwich without it.
21. I have two blue colored moles. I'm an alien.
22. I love potatoes. French fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, tater tots, hash browns, potato chips...you name it, I love it.
23. I played basketball for an Asian league when I was 15. I had never played before but I was the starting center and leading rebounder because I was the tallest one on the team. I'm 5'4''. 

Davis Moo-nlight

On Saturday Lauren and I ran the Davis Moo-nlight half marathon with her mom, Leti. This was hardly planned. Lauren had been talking about how she wanted to run this race for several months, but I kept telling her that I didn't think we were ready for another one yet. I didn't want to run an evening half marathon in the middle of summer. Unsurprisingly, Lauren won that battle and we signed up for the half marathon less than a week before race day. I didn't feel physically or mentally prepared for this one.

We actually ran this same race last year; it was my first half marathon. Ever. I had the worst experience last year. I didn't train at all for the 13.1 miles, and ended up having to walk a lot of the race because my knees were killing me. Since I was one of the last runners throughout the course, many of the aid stations ran out of Gatorade and I was running in complete darkness the majority of the night. To make matters worse, all of the post-race booths had packed up by the time I finished so I didn't get to even bask in the glory of all the complimentary snacks. I did however get a really cool glow-in-the-dark medal though!

Last year: Pre-race

This year was a little better. The half marathon was split into two waves, with the slower runners starting first. Based on my fastest half marathon time, I could have run in the latter wave, but I chose to run in the first wave so that I would finish earlier in the night. That was the best decision of the night. I was able to get Gatorade at all of the aid stations this year and was able to enjoy the post-race booths. It also greatly helped that I carried a water bottle with me. Some of the aid stations even filled it up when I got low on water :) I tried Honey Stinger Chews for the first time, about two chews every two miles, and while they tasted really good, I don't think they helped my endurance and stamina that much. I also ended up taking a vanilla PowerBar PowerGel around mile 10. I now know that vanilla is my least favorite flavor. It tastes like yogurt which many people may like, but not me. I do really like the consistency of the PowerBar PowerGels much better than Gu though.

Even though Lauren and I were able to run the majority of our previous half marathons, we ended up walking about 3 miles this race. I think it was the heat at the beginning that killed us. That, and the fact that we ran 6 additional miles that morning. Oh well.

This year: Pre-race

 

This year: Post-race

My Graduation Dress

Last year, I took a sewing class called "Costume Construction" during my final quarter of college. The majority of the class had never threaded a needle before, let alone use a sewing machine, so there was a wide range of skill. For our final projects, we were let loose and given the freedom to select any pattern to make for ourselves with fabric of our choice. Since graduation was approaching, I wanted to sew myself a graduation dress.

I took to the internet to find a pattern I wanted to use; something I hadn't done before. I stumbled upon Grainline and browsed through her pattern shop. The moment I saw the Kat Strapless Dress, I knew that was the dress I wanted to make.

I ended up purchasing three patterns: the dress, the Scout Woven Tee, and the Tiny Pocket Tank.

Lauren and I spent an entire day fabric shopping in San Francisco. I had the idea embedded in my mind that I wanted needed a floral rayon for the main fabric of the dress. I finally found what I had been searching for at our last stop. I spent forever trying to pick the perfect colors of solids that would go well with the floral print. Luckily our classroom had a large supply of boning, so all I needed to get after I selected my fabric was interfacing, which wasn't so hard to pick out.

The class met for one hour, three times a week, but I also spent a lot of time out of class working on my dress. All in all, my dress took me about 40 hours to complete, including the printing/taping/cutting of the pattern. I know that seems like a lot of time, but it was the first garment I sewed for myself from a pattern.

The pattern was pretty easy to follow, although I am thankful I had lots of help from my professor with the boning in the bodice and inserting the zipper. It turns out using boning isn't hard at all, but it does look pretty scary if you've never attempted it before.

I love my finished dress, but I wish I made a smaller size. Throughout the graduation ceremony, I was constantly readjusting because my dress kept falling down...yikes! Needless to say, I haven't worn the dress again, but once I work up enough courage to take out the zipper and reinsert it, I'm going to take in my dress so that I'll be able to wear it much more.

I did it...

I registered to run the California International Marathon in December. I'm crazy, I know.

At least I have 5 months to train for the race. I started Sacfit with the hope of maybe running more than a half marathon. So I bit the bullet and took the first step.

Sacfit started in early June with a short pace run, so that we could get placed in groups based on our physical fitness level. Our heart rates following our run were factored into our average split times. I'm not a fast runner and it doesn't help that I'm out of shape, so I was placed into a slower pace group. The following week I went out and ran with that group, but I didn't feel like I put any effort into that run. It felt more like a casual fast walk than a workout to me. I talked with the coaches afterward, and together we decided that I should run with a slightly faster group next time. So I'll see how the new pace group goes on Saturday.

On Tuesday we ran stairs and two days later, my calves are still burning. I. Hate. Stairs.

While I'm excited to complete 26.2 miles, I'm also really nervous. I've already told a lot of people that I'm training for a marathon, and so now I have to prove to myself and everyone else that I really can do it. There's no turning back now.