Central Park, Sunshine, and perfect grill lines

Nik and I had a little picnic in Central Park yesterday in the beauuuuuutiful sunshine, before embarking on a shopping excursion for the rest of the day. I wanted to sit in the park all day and he wanted to go shopping for new sneaks, so we compromised and did both. We sat on a rock for a little while, until we couldn't take all the little kids climbing to the top of the rock we were on and screaming in our ears. Cute for the first couple times. :) We found a pretty awesome bench right by the bike road and chilled there for a bit. I think I even got a little color on my face!




I started a new project I'm excited about today:





I had a funny craving for dolmas the other day, but I can never find grape leaves in the store when I'm actually looking for them, so I improvised and used swiss chard. I made a chickpea salad, which consisted of chickpeas, chives, red onion, and a light dressing of garlic, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and mint/thyme/salt/pepper. Some rice was added later. I blanched the swiss chard first, and let it dry before filling and rolling. Maybe next time I'll try using kale, since the swiss chard was a bit wimpier than I thought it would be, and ripped pretty easily. Super-tasty though!




Stirfry with those yummy giant TVP-like thingies from the asian market, that were rehydrated with soy sauce, water, spices, rice vinegar and then boiled in liquid until soft and then sauteed until crispy. Check out that pretty radish!


Whole wheat pancakes for brunch this morning (recipe from VWAV, but subbing whole wheat flour)


I used my new cast iron grill pan on some italian-style tofu (from Vcon) tonight and was pretty proud of my first-timer grill marks. So fun! Haha. Can I tell you how juicy it was served with a bit of veganaise in a sammich?? Served with some lightly sauteed swiss chard and a PICKLE.




It's been driving me crazy how much I depend and use the internet, so I've been trying to cut back a ton, which is why posts have been further apart than normal lately. I just am on it all day at work, and then I come home tired, and try to work on my personal work, but end up getting lost in the internet again. Before I know it, it's too late to really start anything and I end up mad at myself. So! I'm trying to cut off distractions. We'll see how far I get in that. There's just too much to see and do in a day! Sun-filled days help a lot. I moved my stuff to the kitchen today, far away from my computer and it worked out pretty well. I think the internet has given me ADD. I go to do/find one thing and end up somewhere completely different. I need to make a giant FOCUS sign, me thinks.