#why did I have to have this crisis (again) over my morning coffee.... alas

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

😭💔

[ineffablebooklover]

So commissions are gonna come pretty slow, I have to do this all on my phone now sorry about that! Here is part 2 of...

The Crow Cafe Coffee Shop AU~ with the Crows, Ronmione, and Drarry -for @yarn-yogi

Chapter 2

Harry’s stomach turned with dread as Mr. Malfoy went to order, leaving Draco in his wake. “Oh if it isn’t Pottah and his friends!” Malfoy sneered, strutting in. “Studying so early with your gang, eh?” He turned to Hermione. “I thought you’d run back to where you came, but alas, you’re still here, trying so hard!”

(authors note: Hermione is Latina in this fic because I want to and also to show that the Malfoys are racist as heck)

Wylan looked up from his sketchbook, a little uncomfortable.

“Drop it, Draco. I’ve lived here all my life, and I’m not leaving because you don’t like me,” Hermione fought back.

Draco scowled, turning back to Harry. “You just need to stop hanging out with the wrong sort,” he said, glaring at Hermione and Ron. He gave Ron a once-over, scrunching his nose at the hand-me-down jacket and well worn shoes. “This one probably made you pay for that coffee, didn’t he, Potter?”

Wylan looked towards Jesper, then back to the four students, then back to Jesper. Jesper rolled his eyes. Inej glared at Draco, but had to continue to serve his inattentive father.

“They’re my friends, Malfoy. It would be good for you to remember that you’re not.”

Draco looked just about ready to stab someone. “So stupid, Potter. Who knew you-“

“Well are you going to order something, or are you just going to flirt all day with that poor boy over there,” Jesper cut in, suddenly right behind Draco, a cup of coffee in his hand.

Draco stuttered and blushed. “Flirting?? I’m not flirting.”

Hermione and Ron giggled, Harry said nothing.

“Trust me,” Jesper said. “I know flirting when I see it. I’m what you call a pro. But honestly, ‘bullying into submission’ is never the best way to go. Anyways, coffee?” Jesper grinned.

Malfoy was speechless, as if having an internal crisis. He didn’t want Potter like that, right? Right? The moment he asked himself that question, he wasn’t so sure anymore. He stormed out of the coffee shop, slamming the door.

Mr. Malloy noticed, grimacing and without grabbing his coffee, stormed out after Draco.

Jesper grinned, looking back to Wylan, who mouthed ‘thank you’ under his breath.

Kaz suddenly sauntered out from the back, cane clacking ominously on the ground. “Scaring away the pigeons, Jesper?”

Jesper gulped, taking a sip of his coffee. “Uh- no boss.”

Kaz raised an eyebrow, looking at the Malfoys, who were basically running away from the shop.

Jesper stuttered. “Well- he wasn’t going to order anything anyways,” Jesper said, starting to sweat.

“Actually,” Wylan said, speaking up for the first time that day. “I was just going to order another coffee,” he smiled at Jesper.

“Me too,” said Harry.

“I think I’ll need another coffee for the notes McGonagall just posted,” Hermione replied.

Ron looked at Hermione, confused. “But she hasn’t posted-oof.” He got an elbow to the ribs. “Right uh- I’ll have a pastry.”

“Awesome!” Jesper said, bouncing on his toes. “See boss? No business lost,” he grinned nervously, running over to the counter to put in the orders, but Inej already got it down, giving them both a thumbs up.

Kaz just shrugged. “Interesting way of doing business, but go for it.” Then he went back into the back room, cane clicking away into the distance. Jesper breathed out a sigh of relief, looking towards the four students.

“Thank you,” he smiled, having Inej ring up the orders.

The three study wizards turned to each other. “‘Flirting’? That’s a new one,” Ron chuckled.

“Oh hush Ron!” Hermione whacked Ron’s arm with her notebook. “Malfoy is just being an arse.”

“Well I mean if you think about it, Malfoy seems pretty obsessed with you Harry,” Ron pointed out, getting another smack from the notebook.

Harry rolled his eyes. “But the barista is right. He can’t just go around and bully people, no matter what the circumstance.”

Jesper popped up behind Harry, grinning. “Why thank you! I pride myself in my smarts. I have two coffees and a pastry for you three?”

He dished out the order and sighed, looking over to the side. “No matter how cute, getting to know the person is the first step.” He stared longingly at the boy with ruddy curls for a good 10 seconds. “So I’ll go do my job, enjoy the breakfast!” He rushed out, skipping away, ruffling the pale boy’s curls, then staring at him longingly from behind the counter.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at eachother, then burst out in giggles. “Who would want to get to know Draco though?” Harry chuckled.

“Wait so you think he’s cute?” Hermione shrieked.

~•~

Jesper fished around for the customer’s order when he stumbled upon a slip of paper in his pocket that he was sure wasn’t there before. It contained a phone number, and a name, ‘Wylan’.

Jesper scrunched his eyebrows, confused, then looked over at Inej, who was smirking at him. He showed the crumbled slip to her.

“His name is Wylan, and that’s his phone number,” Inej told him, a grin playing on her lips.

“Wait wait wait… Wylan? As in, consistent customer who I brought coffee to this morning Wylan? As in cute guy Wylan?”

Inej bobbed her head up and down and explained as Jesper’s eyebrows went past his forehead. “I told him it was for a rewards club at the cafe. I may have done the front work, but you get to do the real work now.” She nodded towards the paper. “No need to thank me.”

Jesper still bounced up and down, squealing as he hugged Inej. “Screw that, thank you Inej! What would we do without you, right Kaz?”

Inej turned and Kaz was behind them, his resting frown on full blast, the foundation of his face. He just looked away, a slight tint of red on his cheeks.

Jesper shrugged it off, and with one last thank you to Inej, went off to make coffee for the next customer.

Once the crowds died down, Jesper typed the number into his phone. He thought for a bit, then leaned on the counter as he started to type.

“Hey Wylan! This is a Crow Cafe rewards club notification! just kidding, it’s jesper, the cute barista. anyways, how are you?”

It was about 20 minutes before Jesper got a response, almost dropping his phone from taking it out so fast. “I’m okay, thanks. How about you? And how did you get my number?”

“the rewards card scam. inej (the other cute barista, not as cute as yours truly, though kaz would disagree) is very smooth when she wants to be.”

“Oh, okay. That makes sense.”

“and why do you type with caps?”

It took a while for Wylan to respond. “I guess I just never turned off Auto-caps.”

Jesper thought out a response, then typed in, “well, I guess that just adds more layers to that pretty personality of yours ;)” He congratulated himself on the alliteration and clicked send.

There was a typing bubble, then it was gone, then it was typing again. “Is that a winky face?” Jesper smirked.

“Who are you texting during work?” Came a deep voice, and Jesper jumped to attention.

“Uh… just Wylan, my hopefully future boyfriend.”

“But Wylan can’t- well I guess there’s a feature for that now,” Kaz mumbled to himself. He looked back up to Jesper. “Orange hair, freckles, that kid?”

Jesper nodded. “That’s him,” he smirked. “And what did you mean by-“

Kaz just harrumphed. “He’s good at numbers, that might come in handy. Very well, carry on. But if a customer catches you on your phone, I’m taking it and you can kiss Wylan goodbye during work.”

“Yes boss,” Jesper chuckled nervously, then Kaz went back to the back room to do whatever Kaz Brekker does in the back room. Jesper got laser focused back to his phone.

“maybe it is ;)”

end of Ch2!

I might just try posting this on AO3 on my phone then updating there, we’ll see how that works out… anyways I hope you enjoyed this little segment!

also does anyone know how to put the little ‘keep reading’ thing on long posts so people don’t have to scroll past the whole thing if they don’t want to?

Up next… In The Heights nightmareAU

have a nice day :)

[scuttle-buttle]

Mi querida Bee:

Yesterday I spent more hours than I wanted at the airport trying to solve the problem with my ticket, but at least that crisis was resolved so I'm writing to you before having to board to return home.

One of my aunts came to dinner all of the sudden last night while i was cooking and I don't know about you but I don't want an Italian woman who has prepared more family meals than years accumulated between you and me to judge my food so I might have panicked over that 😅 though everything It went well and the ultimate validation was that she asked me for my garlic bread recipe and now I know I can die in peace lol

At night it was my older sister's turn to choose the movie, who of course chose p&p only to get revenge on me because I didn't want to see it together that time I got sick 🙄

This morning I got up early and went to the boardwalk with my younger sister, we made ourselves cinnamon tea and we walked the two blocks there with our mugs in hand 😂 my other sister joined us later and then my mom who was coming back from her boyfriend's house saw us from the car and stayed there with us, old memories came back, my sister brought back the one of "Do you remember that here is where you drowned? And I was like: why do you think I never learned to swim? 🤦🏻‍♂️

We did not do much more than take a last walk around the city, we were dragged towards the church of the saint for which they gave me my name (the whole thing was weird but we were like okay mom wewilldothisforyou 😶) and during the afternoon we spent time together we tried not to succumb to the obvious sadness that caused us all to say goodbye again but some things are impossible to avoid (in short, yes everyone cried again lol) but oh well...

I am slightly (and by slightly I mean a lot) consumed by nostalgia, looking forward to the next few days to resolve my mixed feelings. I guess the bright side of going home is seeing my dog ​​again 😢🐕

write me if you can, something to read when i come home

Escríbeme, con tinta de violetas en un papel de amor, color ausencia. Escríbeme poniendo en cada trazo, la fiebre de tu pulso. Que se me vuelve abrazo y es un abrazo tuyo.

but also no pressure 😅

🔥-N

Cara mia Bee 💞 see you soon, hopefully this time only two hours apart

I dont have any relatives that cook well enough for me to be in that situation. If anything I'm one of the better cooks, I'm just lazy and don't like people. But I'm glad your aunt enjoyed the garlic bread. I'm a slut for it myself and had some the other day.

I don't come from a sentimental family. When I was home my dad was getting nostalgic and upset about things towards me and his past and success as a parent and I just got really uncomfortable about it all... but I have issues and my father and I don't have the best relationship so it is what it is. Anyway.

The year I developed my coffee addiction in university was during a semester that I had 2 morning classes with the same professor but with only 45 minutes between the two sessions. Not long enough to do anything substantial so I'd find myself spending money on coffee. I started using my own coffee machine to save money and would literally carry a mug of coffee across campus to class with me. It was a purple cup with a cat and it said "frankly my dear I don't give a damn". I thought I was some cool kid. I was not. But, as the mug said, I couldn't give a damn 🤷🏼‍♀️

I've also been sick the last two days because of the medication they put me on this week. Had to leave work early on Wednesday and took off today. It's annoying but I'm maybe starting to feel a bit better. I'm a mess. It's fine. Sadly I don't think my letter is written on paper of violet; it's more an unforgiving and dull grey.

My attempt to fight your poetry with more poetry ^

[marblesarelost]

Change Your Mind, Change Your Life

                                             Chapter 11

“I completely understand your concerns, Ambassador,” Darcy said as her office door opened to reveal Jane, freshly tanned and looking thinner, but with a bright glint in her eyes as she grinned. Darcy grinned too, waving madly with the hand not currently busy with the phone.  “And that’s why the guarantee from Stark is written into the treaty.”

“Yes.  The replacement and insurance clauses,” Mr. Minh, the Vietnamese diplomat replied.  “The government of Vietnam would like to see them doubled.  The Hulk by himself can do so much damage, how much more when adding Thor or Loki into the mix?”

“I believe we can accommodate you regarding the insurance clauses, but the replacement clauses are non-negotiable. Stark Enterprises guarantees the replacement of any building necessary.  That’s millions of dollars worth of possible improvements already.”

“I will speak with my government.”

“Of course.  Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon.”  Darcy hung up when the ambassador did, rising from her desk and running around it to fling her arms around Jane.  “OH MY GOD!  When did you get in?  Did you get laid?  You’ve got the “freshly laid” look and I am all of the jealous.”

“Darce!”  Jane blushed, and Darcy nodded.

“Yep!  Got a right root, din’tcha?”  Darcy said in an atrocious Australian accent, and Jane laughed, her body shaking so hard she fell into Darcy’s guest chair.

“Yeh,” Jane managed to say in just as bad dialect.  “Sure did.” Both women dissolved in giggles. “An’ what about y’self?  Foine Sheila like you?”

“Alas, the dry spell continues. But things are looking…interesting,” Darcy offered before glancing at her watch.  “I’m still on the clock.  Listen, um, things are really interesting right now, but I can’t go into detail. Just…wait till five, okay?”

“No problem.  I just got in, and I wanted you to know I was home so when you came up you weren’t surprised,” Jane said.  “I’m exhausted, anyway.  StarkJets are faster than Quantas, but it’s still a heck of a long flight.”

“Right.  Go get some sleep, we can catch up later,” Darcy offered.

“Sure.  Hey, who’s the new guy?”  Jane asked, and Darcy blinked.  “Tall, dark hair, kind of longish, brown eyes?”

“And that’s one of the things we’re going to talk about,” Darcy said.  “Um.  He’s my bodyguard.”

“Bodyguard?  What did you do while I was gone, Darce?”  Jane asked, and Darcy gave her a small smile.

“I…kind of started dating someone important?”

“Oh!  Is he hot?  Who is it? Do I know him?”  Jane gushed, and Darcy shook her head.

“I don’t think you’ve ever met, and I don’t know if he’s hot or not but I kind of -- you know, personality’s really important,” she said, and Jane pulled back, looking at her oddly.

“How do you not know whether the guy you’re dating is hot?”

“When he wears a mask.”

“You’re dating the Phantom of the Opera?”

“No.  I’m dating Victor von Doom.”

Jane blinked slowly a couple of times, opened her mouth and closed it again four times before finally getting some words out.  “Doctor Doom.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re dating Doctor Doom.”

“Yeah.”

“As in the dictator of Latveria, Doctor Doom.”

“Yeah.”  Jane blinked again, then nodded.

“Okay.  Um.  We’re gonna talk about this.  Right?”

“Right.  He likes your work,” Darcy said quickly.  “He really respects your work.”

“That’s…that’s…that’s actually flattering,” Jane admitted.  “But I don’t get why you need a bodyguard.”

“Because Latveria is helping Ukraine repel the New Soviet,” Darcy sighed.  “And helping guard Poland.  He thinks I’m in danger because we’ve been seen together.”

“Oh.  Yeah.  Yeah, I can understand that, sure,” Jane replied, nodding slowly.  “Okay.  Um.  So I -- yeah.  I’m going to go have a nap, and then we’re going to talk about this later.”

“Absolutely,” Darcy nodded. “I promise.”

“Okay.”  Jane’s lips pressed together as she looked at Darcy.  “You know what you’re doing, right?”

“No, but that’s par for the course.  Also we’re mad at Steve,” Darcy said as she helped Jane up.

“We’re mad at Steve. Okay.  Why are we mad at Steve?”

“It’s related.”  Darcy walked Jane to the door of her office. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Okay,” Jane agreed.  

Once Jane was safely out the door, Darcy went back to work, comparing the agreement with Vietnam with several others, concentrating on the reparations, replacement, and repair clauses. The agreements varied, as different countries had different needs and requirements and threat levels, but on the whole, they needed to offer the same thing; an offer of security and trust. Trust that the Avengers would do everything they could not to cause collateral damage.  Trust that they would fix anything they broke.  Trust that they would not go rogue.

Stark Enterprises offering to reimburse, replace, and repair things went a long way toward building that trust.  More, Plan Hippocrates and Plan Hades ensured that where things went wrong (as they would, unfortunately, sometimes they just couldn’t get there in time, and supervillains didn’t care about the cost in human life) they ensured that the survivors of the dead and the living were taken care of without costs to the governments.

She cut off at five as usual, gathered her things and went upstairs, dropping her bags on the easy chair and checking on Jane, first thing.  She was dead to the world, curled around her pillow, and Darcy grinned to herself, closing the door again softly before going to the kitchen and making dinner for two, sliding Jane’s back into the fridge for later.

She had just sunk into her book, Gavin de Becker’s “The Gift of Fear,” when someone tapped lightly on her door. “FRIDAY?”  She said softly.

“Mr. LeBeau, Miss Lewis,” came the answer, and Darcy got up to answer it.  Honestly, he looked yummy; black cotton clung to his torso like a second skin, and his jeans weren’t much better.  

“Cher,” he said softly. “The Avengers are being called out. Some sort of creature appearing in Holland, of all places.  May I?”

“Sure, just stay quiet,” Darcy murmured.  “Jane’s asleep.”

“Of course,” Remy agreed, and she let him in.

“You want coffee or a beer?”

“Coffee, please.  No drinking on the job,” he winked.  “How is my boss today?”

“He hasn’t called today,” Darcy said, leading the way to the kitchen, Remy right behind her after he locked the door.

“I thought he called every day?”

“Every morning, usually, yeah.” She poured coffee, added just a touch of cream, two tablespoons of sugar.  

“Huh.”  Remy’s dark eyes were shadowed as he took the cup from her. “Merci.”

“De rien.  No, he’s probably just busy, I mean, he’s trying to avert a world war, after all,” Darcy shrugged.  

“True,” Remy agreed, sitting down on the end of the couch closest to the door.  “You are taking it much better than I would have expected.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Darcy sighed, picking up her book.  “He’s the leader of a country, he’s trying to restructure his own government, and he’s at war, Remy.  I can’t just expect him to be at my beck and call during a crisis.”

“I agree.  He’s lucky to find such a level headed, lovely woman,” Remy grinned.  “If you could make etouffee, I’d find myself hard pressed not to give him a run for his money, cher.”

“I can make etouffee.  I just don’t, because it’s a giant pain in the ass,” Darcy countered.  “Shelling shrimp is not my favorite way to spend an afternoon, thanks.  You have seen the way people around here eat?”

“Be still my heart.  You make it the right way?  Homemade stock, even?”  Remy’s eyebrow rose, and Darcy laughed as he leaned toward her, giving her what was obviously supposed to be a seductive look.  “Cher.  Mon petit fille la belle, do you know what poor ol’ Remy would do for a decent bowl of etouffee?”

“No.  Nor do I want to,” she grinned.  “You want etouffee that bad, you know where to find it.”

“True,” he sighed, letting himself just fall onto the couch cushion between them rather than sit back up. “The problem is I can’t show my face down home a while longer yet.”

“Yeah.  Issues you don’t wanna talk about, I know.”

“Not don’t want to,” Remy corrected her.  “Can’t. It’s worth more than my life to talk about it.”

“Right.  But you know there’s restaurants here in New York that serve Creole and Cajun --“ she began, and stopped, watching his nose wrinkle up, his mouth twist.

“No.  ‘Less the chef is there, not worth my time, and besides, these days it’s just better to stay ‘round the Tower.  Maybe once your man gets his shit straightened out, might treat myself; there’s places in ‘Bama and Gulfport that are almost as good as Mama Pepper’s,” he sighed, drama leaking off of him like rain.

“Awww.  Ma pauvre petit,” Darcy teased.

“Don’t go stealin’ my lines,” he grinned up at her.  

“No, but do you know how to make it?”  She asked, and he sat up, crossing his arms and looking at her, chin drawn down almost to his chest, affronted.

“Of course!”

“Then maybe the next time you see Bonnie, you can go to hers and teach her how.  There’s you a cute date.”

“You’re a genius, Lewis,” he smirked in return.  “Maybe tomorrow.  Pardon me.” He slid his phone from his pocket and started texting, and Darcy returned to her book.  

  The Black Widow nodded a polite greeting to the generals and Doom as she entered the command center. Monitors covered one wall, each showing a different area of the battlegrounds, one mysteriously dark.

“Agent Romanoff,” a general said. “We are glad to have you here.”

“Thank you.  What information do you have regarding the anomaly?” She asked.  She had read the written debriefs and reports on the flight over, but she knew that they would have fresher information waiting.  She was not disappointed.

“Several drones sent footage,” Doom said, coming to stand beside her.  “Agent.”

“Lord Protector.”

The monitor flickered to life, showing first only a forest, the thick green leaves passing slowly before the camera, before it focused on a dirt track below.  Two more feeds opened to the side, and she watched as a solitary figure appeared in the distance, walking slowly but purposefully toward the cameras.  The bottom left focused, zoomed out, focused again on the stranger, and the Black Widow bit her lip.

Bright pale skin showed from the torso to the head; its hair, too, was white.  Red covered the abdomen, then suddenly unwrapped itself,  several tentacles unwinding, searching, before the camera died.  The same phenomena happened twice more, and the Black Widow’s shoulders stiffened as the monitor went black again.  

“Can you identify it, Agent Romanoff?”  A general asked, and she nodded, turning to face the men and women around her.

“It must be a clone,” she began. “Because its original form is dead. I know it to be dead.  Logan, better known as Wolverine, killed him several years ago.  That is a clone of Omega Red.  Because it is a clone, I’m not sure what powers it has, precisely.  The original mutant -- it was a mutant, enhanced by the Soviet government in the 1970s, given carbonadium tentacles to use as weapons and to enhance its own natural abilities.  It was inhumanly strong and fast.  It had a regeneration ability, and the ability to kill through secreting some sort of gas or emission into the air.  Again, I don’t know what sort of ability this has; clones are notorious for mutating beyond the original’s powers.”

The generals began speaking to one another, an excited hum rising through the air, and Black Widow turned to look up at Doom.  “You might be able to stop it.  But I don’t think any normal human could.”

“No.  They’ve lost four squads already trying to intercept it,” he replied. “It leaves a radioactive trail behind it, villages and small towns have been devastated, almost a 100 percent kill rate.  I intend to intercept it with a group of Doombots before the day is out.  Now that we know what it is, I can check my own records against what it has left behind to try to extrapolate what extra powers this version has.”

Widow nodded.  “That’s a very good idea.”

“Thank you.  I’m known to have them from time to time.”

“So you are.  And I take it I don’t have to give you the don’t do anything stupid speech?”  She asked, one eyebrow rising.  His answering chuckle was low and deep, almost a growl.  

“No, Agent Romanoff.  I will make no move until I am sure of the creature’s abilities and weaknesses,” he told her before stepping away, toward the generals.  “May I suggest that we speed up the evacuation efforts if possible?”  He offered.  “Let no more civilians die before we find a way to stop it.”

Black Widow observed him interacting with the generals and subordinates, silently reevaluating the man. Everything the Widow knew of Doom was being turned on its head.  Doom was traditionally a loner, often acting unilaterally when one could persuade him into acting for the good of humanity at all.  His ego was, like Namor’s, big enough to take on any challenge, and often only his sheer force of will had been the only thing to save him from certain death and/or destruction.

Widow had been ambivalent about his apparent change of heart.  Widow had been concerned when Darcy had expressed interest, her concern only growing when the interest appeared to be reciprocated.  However, Widow had withheld judgment.  Her slowly growing respect for the man had jumped dramatically when he had mentioned having Darcy protected.  Darcy was good.  Widow and ‘Tasha trained Darcy themselves, not willing to trust anyone else with their Kitten, save perhaps Clint.  But Widow was well aware that an enhanced human or a mutant could still easily overpower Darcy, so having Gambit show up had been a relief.  

Widow had to admit, she liked what she saw.  Doom seemed as if he wanted to ensure the safety of the civilians in Omega Red’s path. He seemed as if he were willing to wait for more intelligence regarding the clone’s powers.  While Widow was fairly certain he could squash Omega like a bug, still, caution being a watchword was not a bad thing.  

Widow conferred silently with Natasha, also watching.  Time would tell, they decided.  And until they had observed him longer, they could not tell his true intentions.  The armor was one of the barriers; they could not read his face or his body language properly.  

But this at least was a good start.  And he had to have some sort of tells.  They would find them.  They would memorize them.  And then, when at last Widow and Natasha saw him with Darcy, they would have some sort of measurement.  If he meant her well, fine and good.  Darcy as Queen of Latveria?  Widow and Natasha had no issues with that.  Darcy was clever and intelligent, and would likely be very good for the people.  If he meant anything else…well.  Widow knew several other people that would gladly help her avenge her Kitten.

[mostly-plants]

Week 4 of eating vegan

Day 22: Bakesale day! Over the course of the weekend I made about 85 earl grey & orange cookies, 45 coconut raspberry macaroons, 32 bagels, 24 chocolate cupcakes and 12 lemon blueberry muffins (all vegan). And thanks to my lovely friends, we raised $330 to support Oxfam’s work in addressing the current food crisis in eastern Africa.

Other than catching up with a few friends and feeling happy that we were able to raise some funds, one of my highlights of the day was eating a fresh bagel with nigella seeds, topped with Tofutti Better than cream cheese, fresh tomato and black pepper. It was delightful! I will definitely be making more of these bagels soon! I used a recipe from YouTuber NikkiVegan and just added 100 grams of sourdough starter to each batch for extra flavour and rise. My favourite bagel toppings are sesame seeds or nigella seeds. So good! After a full weekend of baking we were both pretty exhausted, so ordered some Vietnamese food for dinner from Paper Plate. It was pretty tasty, but a little bit expensive for what it was. Also, although the veggie rice paper rolls we ordered had some really enjoyable and interesting flavours, they came with both ends open instead of the traditional enclosed wrap. This made them much harder to eat, because every time you took a bite, the fillings would slip out the bottom. There’s nothing wrong with being creative, but also... sometimes there’s a reason that the original is the best. For dessert I ate 2 more cupcakes because I was tired and hungry and they were full of sugary chocolatey-coffee goodness. I then experienced #cupcakeregret because 2 cupcakes is 1 too many. You win this time, cupcakes. Lesson learned.

Day 23: I was pretty exhausted after baking all weekend, but I had some toast with Tofutti cream cheese and tomato / peanut butter and raspberry jam for breakfast, and then headed off to work. I had leftover Pho for lunch, plus some fruit and coconut raspberry macaroons for snacks, and then (again) leftover black bean tacos for dinner. I also had 1 (and only 1) cupcake for dessert.

Day 24: I was still exhausted this morning, so slept in a little bit and had black bean tacos for brunch (yes, I am just really feeling the love for Mexican food right now!). Morning tea was coffee (of course), a couple more macaroons and a chocolate brownie. Yes, very indulgent, but dinner will be mostly greens.

I was really tired in the afternoon so a had a little rest and then made a “use up what’s in the fridge” stir-fry for dinner. I had a slightly wilted green cabbage, some broccoli and bok choy, and some firm tofu. I mixed up a few tablespoons of peanut butter with about half the amount of sweet soy sauce and a bit of sriracha to make peanut sauce, and cooked up all the veggies and tofu before mixing in the sauce and some pepper. It turned out pretty well! I’d shredded the cabbage into strips and once cooked they were kind of like noodles.

Day 25: Toast for breakfast again - the classic PB and banana on toast with a tablespoon of chia seeds and maple syrup for extra healthy fats, minerals, and, let’s be honest, the maple syrup was there because it’s delicious. :d

Work was hectic so I ended up having lunch (left-over stir-fry) really late, but then by the time I got home around 7pm I felt like doing some cooking to wind down. I’d wanted to try making some seitan, so I attempted this scallion (aka spring onion) sausage recipe from Mary’s test kitchen. I think I underseasoned the mix a little bit, because although they turned out ok, they tasted a little bland. In fairness, I’d used chives instead of spring onions because I didn’t have any at the time, and it may have been a mistake to substitute the key ingredient named in the recipe title! XD I also managed to cut my finger on the edge of some aluminium foil while rolling the sausages up (so talented, how DOES she do it?) Oh well.. You win this time, seitan, but this isn’t over yet!

I’d soaked some barley the night before, so I chopped up some onion, carrot and celery and cooked it along with some veggie stock and bayleaves, then added the barley. For extra veggie goodness (and to clear the last scraps out of the veggie crisper) I threw in some kale and some asparagus. This turned into a really nice hearty soup, and the sliced seitan sausages made a nice chewy addition scattered atop. 

One of the perks of this month has been learning how to cook new things, and in particular, I’m finally starting to understand kale. Yes, it’s super nutritious and a good source of calcium and other vitamins, but because I had no idea how to cook it before I was like “Why does everyone love this tough, bitter thing??” Soooo apparently you need to remove the stalks (at least the thicker base parts), or if you want to eat the stalks you need to cook them for a really long time because otherwise (as I found out) they are really fibrous and hard to eat. I now know how to cook kale so that it’s actually edible. Thanks, internet!

Day 26: There were heaps of leftovers from all my cook-ups this week so I just foraged from the fridge for the day - I feel like I’ve definitely got the hang of making a few meals ahead and having a few key ingredients that make for easy and relatively healthy snacks. I’m finding that even on the days where I don’t think I’ve been as conscious of trying to balance my meals, I still seem to be getting almost 100% of my RDIs for protein, iron, calcium and other vitamins according to the tracking I’ve done with Cronometer. That said, I’m sure it’s not 100% accurate, because it makes assumptions about things you enter - like thinking my soy milk is fortified with B12 when it isn’t.  Cronometer (or any app for that matter) is not going to be flawless, but it’s definitely a helpful guide in making sure I’m not accidentally very deficient in anything.  Now that I’m more familiar with the kinds of foods that are going to provide the range of nutrients I need on a daily basis, I feel comfortable that I can make good choices and achieve a good balance of nutrition myself, but it’s still handy to be able to check how things are stacking up on occasion.

Day 27: I woke up feeling like pancakes for breakfast, and because I was working from home I had the flexibility to cook this morning. I found this recipe for apple pie pancakes from NikkiVegan and decided to give it a go. I didn’t have the chickpea flour she used in the recipe, so I just went with 1 cup whole wheat flour, and 1 cup white wheat flour. I also added a little bit of dark brown sugar and maple syrup to the pancake mix, along with a pinch of salt. I reduced the amount of baking powder to about 1 tablespoon, and used less maple syrup with the apple compote (probably about 1/4 cup instead of the 3/4 cups in the original recipe). Since I had added a little bit of sweetness to the pancakes themselves, I didn’t feel like I needed to use so much syrup in the topping. These turned out AMAZING! They were seriously the fluffiest, tastiest pancakes I’ve ever had! Just look at them!!

SO. FLUFFY. This is 3 small pancakes stacked on top of each other, but it literally looks like a slice of cake. I mean technically it is cake, but I have never seen a pancake this fluffy before! The flax eggs worked very well, and added some bonus ALA/Omega 3 goodness. I’m not oil-free so I did add a dash of canola oil to the pan, and cooked the pancakes on medium-low heat so the middle had time to cook through before the outside got overdone. These were really filling, so 3 pancakes turned out to be one too many for me. The good news is they keep great, I just covered the cooked leftover pancakes and put them in the fridge, then heated them for 1 minute in the microwave the next day and they were just as good. FYI our microwave is weird so if you have a normal microwave 30 seconds might even be enough. Or you can probably reheat them in a pan on low-medium heat for 30 seconds to a minute on each side.

Friday night I did some shopping in the city for a birthday present, and then we went to a friend’s farewell drinks. On the way home the boyfriend spotted a pop-up van at QV, so it was DOUGHNUT TIME! They have vegan doughnuts, so we got a Fairy Godmother and a Pump Up The Jam. Both were very yummy, but hooooooooooooooooly heck! So. much. sugar! Starting AND ending the day with cake is probably not a great strategy for health in the long term, but in the short term it was very enjoyable. Just goes to show you can eat healthily or unhealthily as a vegan, so it just comes down to making the choices that make you feel good in the long run.

 Day 28: It was Saturday so we slept in and had leftover pancakes for breakfast, then went to our friend’s birthday party and had fun exploring Brimbank Park. I like their random giant animals and vegetables, and their Auslan and Braille Alphabet signs:

I wanted to do another batch cook for the week this afternoon, so I made a brown lentil shepherd’s pie with a base of onions, carrots, celery, fennel and vegan beef-style stock. I added tomato paste and dried porcini mushrooms for extra flavour, and it turned out really well! It was also a very good way to use the bag of potatoes that had been sitting in our pantry for the last couple of weeks!

 I also made some vegan pizza, using a quick, no cook pizza sauce recipe I originally saw on America’s Test Kitchen. You can find the quick pizza sauce recipe with notes here - it uses a blender or food processor, but you could also just use diced/crushed tomatoes instead, or cut up the whole peeled tomatoes and mash them together with the other ingredients. To top the pizza I caramelised some red onion, scattered on some chopped olives, and made a batch of fresh moxarella using this recipe from Vedged Out. There’s also a full recipe for vegan margherita pizzas at this link, so you’ll find a dough recipe and another (cooked) sauce recipe there too. The pizza was awesome - the moxarella gives you the stretchy gooey texture that makes melted cheese so enjoyable to eat, and it’s also very quick and easy to make if you have a blender. Just look at this cheezy goodness...

 And that’s it for week 4! Even though there’s only a few days to go of my month-long vegan challenge, I’m honestly not holding out for anything, because I really don’t feel like I’ve been missing out at all. I’ve really enjoyed being able to experiment and cook different foods, and overall I’ve felt really good. Although this weekend was pretty junk-foody, overall I’ve definitely been eating more vegetables and wholegrains than I previously was, and my energy levels and digestion have been pretty great. Those are probably the main changes I’ve noticed so far health-wise, but I’ll do a proper wrap up at the end of the month. Bye for now!