How to have a nice face

After my last post, I developed a little bit of writers' block.  I haven't really made any cool food lately, except for some really tasty salads.  I made one with chickpeas, seitan, grilled zucchini, tofu "feta" and red bell peppers that was phenomenal.  But other than that, I was at a loss.

This blog is kind of all over the place in terms of content, so the possibilities are endless.  I recently really hit my stride in terms of my skin care regimen.  Right now I am proud to say that my skin is pretty great.  So I'm going to share with you how it came to be!

How I look so goooood

From left to right:
-Clarisonic brush - A few years ago, my dad handed me a wad of cash to spend while I was at college "sparingly" so that I stopped charging things on my credit card.  What did I do immediately after getting off the plane?  I went to Sephora and bought the Clarisonic brush.  Honestly, it was worth it because this facial brush is a better investment than the ten items I would have purchased at Whole Foods for that same amount.  I know it says to use the Clarisonic twice a day, but I probably only use it about three times a week.  I have the Mia2 with the deep pore cleansing brush head.  Read more about it HERE.

-Thayers Rose Petal Witch Hazel - I never thought that I needed a toner.  Honestly, I don't even know what a toner is.  I have no clue.  I don't even know what a toner is supposed to do.  Tone your skin?  Who knows.  But I will tell you what this witch hazel does to my skin.  It makes my skin feel refreshed, clean and I'm like 98% sure that my pores are smaller.  In the morning when I wake up I put some on a cotton pad and before I go to bed I do the same thing. Love it.  Also it smells fabulous.

-Coconut Oil - Everyone is pushing coconut oil these days.  I use it for cooking on occasion, but as of right now I've been using it to take off my makeup.  I clicked on THIS pin on Pinterest, threw away my Almay pads and have been doing it ever since.  You just put some oil on your eyes, rub off all of your makeup and wipe it off with a cotton pad.  I'm not going to lie, if I venture outside of the eye area, I break out occasionally, but that brings me to my next item....

-GlamGlow Supermud Clearing Treatment  - I do not remember where I learned about this mask sent from the heavens above, but I am thankful that I did.  This stuff is ridonkulous. I don't have bad enough skin to use an acne face wash or anything, but if I notice that my skin is looking a little off, I use this mask and everything is right in the world again.  Not only that, but my skin just looks better in general.  Even skin tone, smaller pores, etc etc.  Also it does this weird thing where it shows all of the stuff that it is taking out of your pores.  It's pretty gross but I def enjoy it.  It is VERY price ($69) but it's worth it.  I swear! It can also be used as a spot treatment. 

why am I so cute?

-Vasanti Brighten Up! Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator - I have saved the best for last.  This honestly the best skincare item that I have ever experienced and probably will ever experience.  It's an exfoliator.  You're only supposed to use it a few times a week.  I use it about every two days and you let it sit for a little bit because there are papaya enzymes in it.  The little micro beads don't irritate your skin at all.  There's also aloe in it.  Imm so excited about this stuff that I don't even know what to say about it.  I got it in my Birchbox like a year ago and since then I have been hooked.  I thought I lost it one time, so I bought a new bottle and then I found the old one, and it was basically Christmas.  This stuff is also pricey ($34) but it is SO SO SO SOOOO worth it.  You use less than a pea-sized amount every time you use it and the tube is fairly big.  I highly recommend this to everyone ever.  Get it HERE. 

Here are some other tips to have the best skin you can have.
1) Drink more water.  I have witnessed a direct correlation between the amount of water that I drink, and the condition of my skin.

2) Take a multivitamin.  There is tons of literature about whether they are good for you or not, but I really think that my hair, skin and nails are improved by taking the multivitamin.

3) Don't pick.  I know it's hard, but don't pick at your pimples.  Find something to distract you!!

Here's my fave one

There you have it! The best skincare products, in my opinion.  I left out my moisturizer, which is the Kate Somerville oil free moisturizer.  My next blog post is going to be about the raw food challenge that my friend Tasha and I are doing.  It's through THIS link and it starts on June 1st.  I'm super excited to try it!

I started a raw food board on Pinterest, you can check it out HERE.  Everything looks so good!

In other news, I recently started painting again, and I did this one in about two hours for Peter, because he likes lions.  I think it's pretty good for a two year hiatus!

ciao ciao! - Katelyn

Recipe Thursdays - Not actually spicy Peanut Butter Tofu

I hate eating peanuts.  Roasted, honey roasted, plain, I am just burned out on peanuts.  Not. A. Fan.  However, I am a fan of things that have peanuts in them.  Like pad thai and peanut butter and recently the peanut butter and chocolate Pro Bar.

I found THIS recipe on Pinterest (of course, where else?) from Kalyn's Kitchen and I knew I had to make it.  Usually I just browse through and pin stuff, but with this one, I knew I had to make it because 1) it looked ridiculously easy 2) peanut butter 3) soy sauce 4) tofu.

I tweaked it a little bit to fit my own tastes/also I didn't have all of the ingredients I needed.  Enjoy!  I made if a few days ago, and I really cannot wait to make it again!

Vegan Asian Peanut Butter Tofu
Tofu: 
1 block of extra firm tofu sliced into diagonal pieces
1 tablespoon of peanut oil
3 cloves of garlic sliced
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Sauce:
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable stock
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter (the recipe stressed to use natural peanut butter but all I had was jif.  Sorry I'm not sorry haha.)
1 tablespoon agave nectar
2 tablespoons of Sriracha or rooster sauce

Press your tofu to get rid of all of the excess water.  For a while I was pretty ghetto and I would just wrap my tofu in paper towels and place it in between two plates with some books on top.  Now I have my Tofu EZPress that I got from Amazon and it saves me a lot of time and paper towels.  I highly recommend it!!

Mix together all of the sauce ingredients!  Put in as much Sriracha as you would like!  I surprised myself and kept adding the rooster sauce until I was satisfied with the spiciness.  It took me a while to work up to medium salsa so this was not expected.  

Heat up a pan.  Throw the oil in there, then let it heat up a bit.  Then throw that garlic in there.  Let the garlic stay in the pan until it smells really strong.  Then take it out and set aside or throw away.  I personally set it aside to reuse in my next recipe because I felt bad throwing it away.

Now put the tofu in the oil. Cook until it is lightly browned on each side.  Then put the pan on low heat and add the sauce.  Cook until the tofu is coated and the sauce is getting a little thick.

Place the tofu on a plate and pour the sauce over it.  Garnish with green onions if you have them! I didn't think I had any but apparently my family has tons in the garden! I didn't find this out until after I ate it though.  Sooooo not cool.

When I was making this, my mother was cooking sausage for my dad right next to me.  Seeing my nice tofu cooking in this light, plant based sauce next to the sausage, which had gone from red to purple (how does that even happen??!) cooking in basically a mixture of water and its own fat was really interesting.  My mom was like, "Oh well I'd eat healthier if it wasn't for your father liking this food."  She also said, "We come from a different generation."  Not sure why being from a different generation is an excuse to eat junk and animal fat, but that's their prerogative.

ewwwwwwwwwwww

 I'm actually really glad that growing up my mother didn't let me eat sugary stuff and provided me with balanced meals before I was able to feed myself and was moderately supportive of my decision to become a vegetarian at the age of 12.  I just wish there was something that I could do that would help my family let go of what I can only assume is an emotional attachment to fake food.  There's some type of chicken product in the freezer right now called "Wyngz".  What? No. Stop.  Right now.  That's not a real word and those are not real things. 

I have a few non-recipe blog posts in the works except I haven't really materialized them yet.  I'm working on it! Haven't been doing much except working and being lame because Peter is in Barcelona but he comes back today yay! Doing spring cleaning today and I cleared out so much stuff that I don't need anymore! 

I'm going to bring it to our community flea market in a few weeks.  That's one of the biggest things I miss about being in the states (other than the number one which is obviously Target), when everyone can just get together and sell stuff in their yard.  In the community here, people either live in apartments on base or out in the Italian economy so it's basically impossible. 

I've been trying to get into some new music because I feel like I have been listening to the same stuff over and over again for the past few weeks.  I can't stop listening to Hozier.  I've been doing a lot of pet sitting and here are two of my new favorite little furry friends, Bella and Daisy.  Their cuddle game is on point. 

Ciao ciao! - x Katelyn

Recipe Thursdays - Vegan Lasagna

I am obsessed with lasagna. Nothing satisfies like layers of tomato sauce, noodles and cheese cooked to perfection.  Making a lasagna without cheese might sound like sacrilege, but I assure you that this lasagna lives up to expectations!
I got invited to a dinner party at my friend and former neighbor, Erika's new house and I told her I would bring a dish.  I spend a lot of time on Pinterest (code for: I am obsessed with Pinterest and have over 1000 recipes pinned - see my Vegan board HERE ) and I very fortunately stumbled upon THIS recipe for vegan lasagna with a "Basil Cheeze" sauce. 

My attempt at being artistic pre-oven.

 I was so excited to make it because I was still riding my mushroom stroganoff cashew sauce high. I was like 95% sure that I had all of the ingredients that I needed. Unfortunately I was very wrong. I had no basil, no zucchini and maybe a cup of spinach. I was pretty close to not making it.

But I had to, I was a superhero. I could do anything. Anything I made was going to turn out phenomenally. I MADE VEGAN CHEESE. I COULD DO ANYTHING.

So I made a risky move, I substituted baby spinach for the basil. I was so scared that it wasn't going to work because after all it is a "Basil 'Cheese'" sauce. And because I didn't have any spinach left to put in the vegetable mix I threw some kale in that beeyotch.

Vegetable mix 1.0

IT.
WAS.
AWESOME.

I undercooked it a little bit but other than that it was amazing.  The next time around I used the basil that the recipe actually called for but I kept the kale because I really liked it in there and I added mushrooms.

NEW BLENDER. WHAT IS UP.

In the future I think I would use less nutritional yeast.  I've found that in most recipes that call for nutritional yeast, I always wish there was a little less.  So in this recipe I would probably add less yeast and more cashews to get a creamier and less tangy flavor. 

In the recipe it says to be careful to not under-season the vegetables because they will taste bland.  Well let me tell you, my vegetables were so perfectly seasoned that it was ridiculous.  I splashed some balsamic vinegar in there, I twisted my garlic and pepper grinder copious times and I'm pretty sure that I added some red pepper flakes.  It wasn't too much though.

I'd have to say that my favorite part about this dish was the assembly.  Repeating the tomato sauce, noodles, "cheese" sauce and vegetable layers didn't feel like work.  I genuinely enjoyed piecing it all together and it really didn't take long at all. 

And it wasn't ugly at all either

Overall the dish was a success.  My friend Lesly even said that it was very good and I know that if it tasted terrible, she would definitely tell me that it tasted terrible.  I think it could have benefited from a little bit of fake meat.  I think that an Amy's Sonoma burger would have tasted really great in this recipe and I am going to try it in the future.  Also next time I have more time on my hands I'll be using my own tomato sauce! 

All done! So delicious I can't even.

  Dinner at Erika's was great.  She ordered pizza at a place where you can literally get it by the meter.  She got me my own little meter of marinara.  There was so much pizza.  Where at a traditional dinner party there would be a table runner, here there was pizza.

She also flawlessly made martinis for everyone.  At the end of the night after everyone left, Erika, her husband Alessandro, Peter and I had prosecco poured over mango sorbet as dessert and it was delicious.

mmmm prosecco and sorbet

Hey self, looking good.

ciao ciao! -Katelyn

Recipe Thursdays - Vegan Mac and Cheese

I get about two days off a week.  Sometimes three if I decide I don't want to deal with douchebag customers.  Lately, I've been trying to use my days off for constructive things.  If I was a normal person, I wold probably be using them to clean the monstrosity that is my room or to study for my classes, but because I am definitely not normal I am using it to knock out some of the >1000 recipes that I have on my Pinterest boards.

I have three main boards that I pin on.
Vegan Recipes
Vegetarian Recipes
Things I have actually made

I've been trying to move things over to the "Things I have actually made" board.  So far I have 14.  I have made the resolution to make at least one recipe a week.  This week I chose the "Mac n' Yeast" recipe from the Bake and Destroy vegan cookbook.

RECIPE HERE

There were a few things that I noted about this recipe.
1) I needed to add water as the "Cheezy sauce" cooked because it would get too thick, I think that in the future I might add almond milk instead.
2) I wish that I added Sriracha sauce or Tabasco sauce to the "Cheezy sauce".  Instead I added it afterwards and it was still a really good addition.
3) I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce.
4) I used some random vegan margarine that I found at Carrefour yesterday.  I am curious how it would have tasted if I used Earth Balance instead.
5) Last but not least, I used premade bread crumbs because I'm lazy.  Next time I would like to use my own!

I doused it in Sriracha sauce and it was amazinggggg.  I would compare the flavor to a really sharp cheddar.  The yeast gives it a bite.



Overall I would rate this recipe as follows.

Flavor: 7/10
Ease: 7.5/10 (with 1 being difficult and 10 being super easy)


Next week, I look forward to trying a cashew-based vegan mac and cheese because I have about three pounds of cashews sitting in my house that I bought for this very purpose a few months ago and I still haven't touched them. 

Ciao Ciao! Katelyn