Summer Madness is Over

I’m sorry I haven’t write in a while. My youngest sister got married at the end of July. The wedding was a beautiful and emotional one. I cried most of the time during the wedding. My dad and grandfather came to visit from Indonesia because of the wedding and were here until last week.

We had a busy three weeks. It was fun and challenging at the same time. The challenging part for Jesse and I were we ate out a lot with our family. It wasn’t easy because most of the time we went to restaurants that are not Vegan friendly. They have salads, but we really didn’t want to eat salad everyday for almost three weeks. So, we compromised and we were mostly vegetarian during those three weeks. It made it easier for us. For example, we ate some non whole wheat pastas, breads, regular Chinese food (still only tofu & veggies, etc.

Last week, my dad and grandpa went back to Indonesia. I’m back to reality which was working full time and working the whole week. When they were here, I was managed to take days off and only worked few days which I’m going to miss very much. It’s also meant back to eating at home and cooking at home. I was kinda depressed for few days because after I ate mostly Vegetarian, I realized that I like to have choices and not to feel guilty if I ate non whole wheat food or not completely vegan meals.

Because of that, I decided that I want to be mostly Vegan which means our household is still a vegan household. I will cook and eat Vegan meals, but when we are dining out, I want to be able not to feel guilty if I want to eat standard regular Spaghetti with Marinara sauce. I can say now I’m 60% Vegan & 40% Vegetarian. I feel good about that. Jesse told me that what’s important is for me to be happy. I’m happy to know that I don’t have to be perfect all the time and at the same time I’m still on track to live a healthy lifestyle and help reduce the consumption of animals.

I know I haven’t post recipes in a while, I got two new cookbooks that I’m excited to read. Now that things are back to normal, I will post more, I promise .

Surprise of the day: I got nominated for Inspiring Blog Award!

I woke up this morning and got a notification that the lovely MeetYourTreat nominated for the Inspiring Blog Award. What a nice surprise for Monday!

Inspiring Blog Award

The rules for the “Inspiring Blog Award”:

*  Thank the person who nominated you.
*  Tell 7 things about you that will not come up in your blog entries.
*  Pass this on to 15 other bloggers that you find inspiring.

I want to thank MeetYourTreat for the nomination. I just started Bites of Happiness not long ago and it’s only about two months I’ve been a Vegan. There are so many challenges. Without the help, support, and endless delicious blog posts from other fellow bloggers, I won’t be able to make it through the transition. It’s also nice to know that other people read my blogs. It made me feel warm and fuzzy. .

Now, you will find out Seven things about me that probably I won’t mention in my future blog posts:

1. My name is Olivia. People called me with so many nicknames from Ivy, Livvy, Livi, Liv, Livia, and Ollie.

2. I’m a Leo that’s why I like to be the center of attention (just kidding). I used to want to be the center of attention as I get older, I don’t want it much.

3. I’m 30 years old and going to be 31 in 3 weeks…eeekkkk…

4. I love all kind of music, but have soft spot for Pop music. I was a HUGE New Kids On The Block fan from back in the day. I still listen to 80s and 90s music all the time.

5. My guilty pleasure as of TV shows, I love Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Raising Hope, Bob’s Burgers, and Jersey Shore. We don’t have extended cable at home so we watch all of our shows from Netflix and Hulu Plus.

6. I’ve been living in Portland for 13 years. Jesse and I are planning to move somewhere else hopefully in the near future. I love this city and it is one of the Vegans meccas, but there’s more life outside this Stumptown.

7. I love vintage and antiques. My ideal house will be an old house with all characters that come with it.

Since you guys found out more about me, you should check out my fellow bloggers who I nominate for Inspiring Blog Awards:

1. The Vegan Husband

2. Veggie Nook

3. Dan Barton’s Blog

4. Trees, Bees, and Chickpeas

5. The Wandering Vegan

6. Beans Not Bambi

7. Stick To Your Greens

8. The Hippie Gypsy

9. Sophie’s Foodie Files

10. Trying Not to be Fat

11. Gazing In

12. Emily Cooks Vegan

13. Bentorrific

14. Cameraphone Vegan

15. The Misfit Baker
This award totally made my day and thank you so much for reading my blog!

Busy busy bee…

I’m sorry for the lack of posting. I’ve been busy with work, home life, and family. My youngest sister is going to get married next Saturday. I’ve thrown her a Bachelorette party last Saturday. For dinner we went to Departure. It’s a nice restaurant and pretty swanky. They have a nice Omnivore’s menu and also a Vegan menu with around 10 items on the menu. All Vegan!!! I was super excited and wanted to ate everything on the menu. I settled with Kimchi Fried Rice and Vegetables Tempuras. They were delicious. After dinner we went to Darcelle’s for fabulous Drag Queens show. It was fun, by the end of the night (or morning) I was tired but not super tired. Another plus side of being a Vegan. .

On Sunday we went for family brunch for my sister’s boyfriend’s birthday. We went to Accanto and so sad to tell you this, they don’t have good options for Vegans at this restaurant. Granted, it’s a five stars quality restaurant but all their entrees are egg and dairy heavy. Jesse and I settled with a bowl of Chickpea soup, a side of Greens, a side of  Potatoes, and fruit bowl. All of those cost us $25. Pretty spendy for side dishes.

I’m sorry if I haven’t post much recipes. We’ve been eating out more because we’ve been busy cleaning & organizing our place. When we ate at home, lately, it’s more of casual dishes that I just throw together. Couple days ago I made Eggplant Casserole with Roasted Pepper Sauce with Onions, Yellow Bell Pepper, Garlic, Tofu, and Cereal crumbs on top. I was out of Bread Crumbs so I just crushed corn flakes cereal. I paired that dish with Rotini Pasta. I don’t even know if that’s recipe worthy because I just made it up . It tasted great and we had plenty leftovers.

Tomorrow, my dad and grandfather will arrive from Indonesia. I’ve haven’t seen them for three years, my sisters haven’t seen them for six years. They will stay with us until August 10. It will be a busy few weeks for me. Apologize in advance if I won’t blog as much. I will still read others posts tho because I love all of your posts.

Have a great weekend and don’t miss me much .

Good Reads – Please Don’t Feed The Bear & The Kind Diet.

Jesse surprised me with two cookbooks when we just started with our new lifestyle of just eating whole plant based food. I managed to read both of them and even tried out a couple recipes.

The first one titled, “Please Don’t Feed The Bear.“

Please Don’t Feed The Bear

This cookbook is so fun to read. It’s so rebellious with rock and roll notes in the book. Every dish comes with a suggestion of metal or heavy metal song to pair with the dish. Recipes in this book are super homemade recipes. You can find recipe how to make your own Seitan and even how to make your own Bubble Tea. This book is great for basic and simple recipes. The only downside, few of the recipes don’t have suggestion serving size so you will have to guess. I love how there are some funny drawings on pages of this book. I totally recommend this book for newbies and even long timer in the vegan world.

Stars ratings: 4 stars out of 5 stars.

The second book is “The Kind Diet”.

The Kind Diet

I’m a fan of Alicia Silverstone since the “Clueless” days. I don’t have any idea she’s a vegan until a month ago. I was excited about this book and pretty thrilled when I got the hardcover one even though I would be happy with just the paperback. This book fills with a lot of information on vegan & macrobiotic lifestyles. Before this book, I don’t even know anything about Macrobiotic diet.

She explained everything very well in this book. You will find many delicious recipes in this book, but a few of them will require ingredients that you can only find at Asian grocery stores. Most of them are using everyday ingredients and even when a recipe called for soya sauce, I’m sure most people have access to them now since every store is selling soy sauce (Fred Meyer, Safeway, Albertsons, Winco, etc).

I recommend this book to you all as a good reading book and very informative book with delicious recipes. Gentlemen, if you have a vegan/vegetarian/omnivore girlfriends/wives please get this book for them and I guaranteed it will make them happy. It’s really a kind book.

Stars rating: 5 stars out of 5 stars.

 

Health Maintanence and natural remedies

Reblogged from Living Well:

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I’m a hungry hungry Hippo.

If I’m a Hippo, I want to be cute like this one.

Since I changed my diet to whole food plant based diet, I noticed that I’m hungry all the time. I had my breakfast usually between 8-9 am and by 11 am I’m hungry again. Usually I snack on Almonds  or other nuts. I don’t want to over snack myself because my lunch time is at 12. For lunch I have big serving of salads, some grains, and more veggies or protein (tofu, tempeh, soy curls, or seitans). I also drink a lot of water in the morning and at lunch time. Lunch will keep me full until around 2:30 or 3 pm and then I’m hungry again. I snack on fruits in the afternoon (apple, apricot, strawberries, etc). I drink more water and when I’m off at 5 pm usually I’m starving.

We got home usually around 5:45 pm if we don’t have to do errands or have events to go to. By that time, I’m so ready to cook dinner. Dinner is usually lots of vegetables pair with starch (Brown rice, whole wheat pasta, potatoes, or wraps), legumes, and sometimes we have protein/mock meats but we try to limit that to only 2-3 times a week. Then for dessert we have more fruits (cherries, strawberries, raspberries, etc). Most of the time I feel fine but there are days when around 9 pm I’m hungry AGAIN!!!! I really don’t like to eat close to my bed time so most of the time I drink more water and just sleep it off.

I don’t know why I’m hungry all the time. The good thing is that I don’t gain any weight, actually I lose some pounds. So far, I’m losing 8 lbs. I read some articles/blogs online and some people do experience this when they switched their diets to whole plant based diet. I thought I won’t have problem with it after my 1 month mark. However, I think I will have this for a while.

So, tell me if you guys are experiencing the same thing and what are your favorite snacks without too much sugar or carbs?

Veg Restaurant Review: Sweetpea Baking Company

I love to cook breakfast on the weekend rather than wait in line to get a table at breakfast/brunch spots in Portland. People in this city love their breakfasts and brunches. They are willing to wait in a long line even if that meant up to two hours wait. Not this girl. I don’t like to wait for my food except if I had to (dine with family and friends), but if it’s just Jesse and I, we rather have breakfasts at home or go to not so popular breakfast spots.

Since we became plant based eaters, we haven’t  really go out for breakfasts much because it’s easier and less hassle to cook veg breakfasts. However, last weekend, I really didn’t feel like cooking and I craved for delicious biscuits and gravy (veg style of course).

We tried Black Sheep Bakery first and they didn’t serve any biscuit that weekend because they didn’t have any cook that day. We decided on Sweetpea Bakery down on SE 12th & SE Stark. This awesome place located in the mini vegan mall. Yes, we have a vegan mall but it’s not big at all. Basically, it has Sweetpea Bakery, Herbivore Clothing, Food Fight Grocery, and Scapegoat Tattoo (yes, you can get your vegan tattoos here).

There was no line at Sweetpea Bakery. We ordered at the counter. I had the Biscuit with Tempeh bacons and gravy. Jesse had biscuit with seitan and gravy. I love my dish, but I wished it had more gravy. I’m a sucka for gravy and I like lots of it.

Delicious biscuit with tempeh bacon & gravy.

Jesse loved his meal. I didn’t even have a chance to take the picture. After our meals, we were still kinda hungry. We browsed the array of sweets they have in display case. They have donuts, Cinnamon rolls, brownies, cupcakes, muffins, and even slices of cakes. All of them are vegan and some of them are Gluten Free.

I ordered the Vanilla cupcake with berries on top which happened to be also Gluten Free. Jesse got the Chocolate cupcake with Raspberries on top.

Vegan & Gluten Free Vanilla cupcake with berries.

This cupcake is so delicious. Chocolate cupcake with Raspberries.

I liked my cupcake but it was too crumbly. I like Jesse’s better. However, Jesse liked mine better. It was too funny. We just switched our cupcakes. They were delicious. Next time, we want to try their veg bagels. This place will make me gain weight if I come here often .

Rating: 5 stars out of 5 stars.