Adventures in the kitchen

So...my pseudo-Vegan diet seems to be going quite well. This month I was only in pain for a mere 3 days. That is a vast improvement over the usual week I would spend in misery.

Now that I know it's working, I've attempted to become more creative with my meat-less meals. My first "gourmet" attempt was what I like to call, Roasted Red Pepper Stuffed Mushrooms. I again ventured to TJ's (I affectionately now refer to Trader Joe's with a nickname because I'm literally there twice a week) and I found some soy "mozzarella" cheese and some meat-less "beef" strips. I also bought two large portabella mushrooms caps and a sweet red bell pepper. I wasn't exactly sure how I would combine the ingredients, but it sounded like a good start. When I got home, I sliced the red pepper up into strips and then cut each strip in half. I sauteed them in a small skillet with a Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil over medium high heat. I seasoned them with a little garlic and black peppercorn. While those were roasting, I placed the two mushroom caps in a large skillet with a little olive oil cooking spray. Over medium heat, I allowed them to cook until they began to produce some excess water in the pan. I've heard that's the trick to good mushrooms. I then sliced about 1 oz of the soy cheese and placed the slices on top of the underside of each cap. They melted quickly, which really impressed me since it wasn't "real" cheese. Finally, I added the meat-less beef strips to the pan so they could become hot. They only require about 3-4 minutes to heat through.


My final presentation looked like this:





Pretty impressive, right? It was soooooo delicious. Definitely not like your usual meat and cheese, but it was so nice to actually have a meal that I COOKED. I've been relying so much on soups, salads, wraps, and pasta. This really gave me the inspiration to check out more options and see what I can come up with. Who knows. Maybe one day I'll have my own Vegetarian/Vegan cafe. Now THAT would be awesome. :)

Go Cavaliers!

I can’t even believe it! I’ve been accepted into the Hampton Reading Cohort and I’ll be receiving my Masters in Reading Education for FREE through UVA! Holy crap! I applied back in January, but for some reason I wasn’t accepted during the first round. (Honestly, I think the fact that I temporarily moved back to PA and then returned to Hampton didn’t look so great on my resume…) Regardless, I was contacted a couple weeks ago and told that some people didn’t make the cut so I’m in! I had to quickly check my schedule and luckily I could take the summer course, Children’s Literature. This 3 week class is currently kicking my tail. We meet 7 times over 3 weeks and the work load is intense! Basically, our professor has taken the usual course load for a semester and shoved it into 3 weeks. It’s rough, but I’m learning so much! I’m excited to apply the strategies in my classroom this fall. My next step after this class is to take the GRE so I can be “officially” accepted into the Curry School of Education at UVA. I’ll be honest. I’m a little nervous. I’ve never had a problem with standardized tests, but knowing that so much is riding on this makes me anxious. I bought a study manual though, and I will definitely be prepared!

The best part about this program is the fact that I get to take classes with two of my best friends, Erika and Melissa! I think we call each other or talk on Facebook at least 12 times a day to make sure we’re doing our assignments correctly. Thank goodness I have them to rely on!

My tutoring is also going really well. I’m working with a 7 year old boy who is going into second grade. We meet twice a week and he is so cute and well-behaved. It’s the easiest job I’ve ever had!

The next couple weeks are going to be crazy busy. On top of class, tutoring, and homework, I also have two days of computer training for work. Geez! But luckily, I get to go home after all of that to see my family! I haven’t been to PA since Christmas and I can’t wait!