minimal.

I'm finally moving into my new place on Monday!! All I can think about is how I'm going to decorate my amazing (and extremely teeny-tiny) new space. This is the smallest apartment I've ever lived in, and it's forced me to re-evaluate all the crap I've accumulated over the years and think about what I actually NEED in my life. I want the space to be comfortable and inspiring in decor, while also minimal in actual stuff.

Image source
Image source
Like my last place, this one has ZERO closets. Me and my roll rack don't give a damn!
Via Emmadime
Love how the white-on-white makes the shelves blend in with the walls
via daydreamily
Image source
I like the idea of using a blanket like this as a couch covering
Uhh rentals! If I ever buy a place, my kitchen will look like this! via pinterest

Get ready for tons more apartment inspiration coming your way! Maybe even some DIY'S too!

leftover steel-cut oat and broccoli scallion pancakes

I have been so crazy busy this week-between looking for a roommate, searching for an apartment and then signing the lease (I literally feel like I batted an eye lash and all this happened)-I have been so exhausted. Too exhausted to even go food shopping or cook food! (I know! And those are like, my two favorite activities!!)

So when I went to take a dinner break from sorting/ packing all my stuff, I didn't really have much to work with. I was actually craving falafel, or something similarly warm and crispy, but I didn't have ANY of the ingredients needed to make falafel:( What I did have was a big container of steel-cut oats I cooked up the week and a random array of vegetables. I just kinda grabbed whatever looked good and started mixing things together with the intention of making some sort of stir-fry or veggie burger. The outcome of concoction tasted JUST like the scallion pancakes I used to eat from the chinese restaurant near my house when I was younger-only wayy better (less greasy + more flavorful)

just like take-out, only better

Here's what I mixed together. The measurements are complete estimates because I just used what was leftover!

~1c steal-cut oats, cooked and cooled

~1/3c daikon radish, grated (or chopped, but I like to grate my veggies with a cheese grater, which is obvi not ever used for cheese;)

~3 scallions, chopped (white part included) plus leave some aside for a super-shmansy garnish

~1/4 broccoli florets, chopped into tiny pieces, excluding the stems (sorry stems!)

-1T ground flax seed mixed with 2T water, set aside to turn into a gel

-1T brown rice flour, or whatever flour you have on hand (all purpose would work)

-1 pinch of cumin

-1 pinch of cayenne or other spiced pepper (I used a lot because I love heat)

-salt and pepper to taste

-olive oil for pan (although cooking spray would work if you are trying to cut down on oil)

Mix all the oats and veggies in a bowl. Then add your spices and binders (flax "egg" and flour) While the oil is heating in the pan, use your hands to form a ball of the "dough" and then plot it into the pan. Let it crisp up a bit before using a spatula to flatten it into a pancake shape. Cook until both sides are crispy and brown, about 8 minutes total, depending on the size of your flame and how crispy you like it (or how hungry you are.) Serve with some chopped fresh scallions on top. Viola!

This would make a great appetizer to go with an asian stir-fry. Wow, I should really go grocery shopping!

what's wrong with wool

So by now we know not to EAT meat and definitely not to WEAR fur or leather (gross) but what about wool? This seems to be fuzzy (pun intended) topic because many people think that the sheep are simply given a "hair cut" every now by a nice shepherd which is then woven into a little sweater by someone's grandma. Well, sorry to break it to ya, but not only are most of the sheep raised in horrific living conditions, non-organic sheep's wool is dowsed in harmful (to us and the sheep) chemical pesticides and insecticides. In addition, one of the world's largest sources of wool, Australian merino wool, practices a technique called mueling- essentially cutting off chunks of flesh to ensure the greatest wool output. When the sheeps are no longer needed/ usable for wool production, they are shipped of for slaughter. This is all illustrated nicely in this video by PETA narrated by Pink:

While organic wool seems like a great alternative to conventional, it unfortunately comes with a heafty price tag and isn't nearly as widely available. I'm still a firm believer that second-hand is the most eco way to go because you don't have to factor in the impact of production, packaging, shipping etc. let alone labor practices and inhumane treatment of animals. One eco-company that I'd like to highlight is Vaute Couture. Created by Leanne Mai-Ly Hilgart, these gorgeous coats are artfully made out of inovative fabrics such as recycled soybean pod fibers! I'm still always on the lookout for ways to stay warm without harming animals or the environment.

What are your thoughts on wool?

best fucking friends

Etched re-claimed brass on recycled chain

Today I made these necklaces for my best friend (well, one is for me;) in honor of her 21st birthday and 90th day sober. I'm so proud of you baby girl!

For inquiries contact: berleenyc@gmail.com

August linky-links

Love this piece On Going to High School in New York, it's freakishly accurate.

This post on how to identify the quality and longevity of a garment is a must read for buying vintage.

I'm not really one to gush about weddings, but everything about this wedding is perfect!

Really enjoyed this article on Fashion & Identity via Goodlifer.

This index of eco-designers and shops is an amazing resource to have!

Hmmm, this is an interesting take on vegan jewelry and other treasures at Milan design week

Standard is an interior design magazine where "green is a standard, not a style" Everything featured in the mag is "eco-friendly" etc etc but not labeled as so! Read the latest issueonline!

Guess who's back (back, back, back)...

Helloooo...I don't know if anyone is even still reading this thing (or if they were in the first place) but after taking a 5 month hiatus...I'M BACK! And for good this time, with the promise of more frequent and varying posts, but only under one condition...part of the reason why I lost my ambition to keep this blog going (aside from moving 4 times and overwhelming myself with school, work, internships, friends, family etc…) was because I really didn't think it was reaching anyone. And while I do love having a place to archive all my findings and yum adventures, my main motivation is to share my wealth of knowledge with others. This is because I can say that the hands-down best resource for me when transitioning into a vegan and more environmentally responsible lifestyle has been through the internet. As a student, both in college and the world, I feel that I owe every thing I know to the amazing individuals and communities of people who have been gracious enough to share their findings with me. I haven’t really done too much in the form of marketing my blog, but I could really use your help to feel like my voice is being heard. I think with the encouragement of others, the energy to continue to collect information and start many interesting discourses will only come naturally. So, in exchange for your support, today I would like to share one of my favorite recipes of all time.

Trail of Kale Salad::

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kale (or 2 small bunches)

pinch of sea salt

1 lemon

1 avocado

¼- ½ red onion, sliced thin

sesame seeds

optional:

¼c arame seaweed, placed in a bowl of warm water and left to rehydrate

dulce/ seaweed flakes. I use this mix.

Click image to enlarge

Wash the kale leaves rip into bite-size pieces. In a large container, massage the leave with the salt and allow it to sit out and soften for about ten minute. The longer you massage, the more enzymes in the kale break down and the softer it becomes. Return to the bowl and squeeze the juice of a lemon over the leaves and massage. Slice open an avocado, remove the pit and slice into pieces before dumping it on top of the kale and, you guessed it…massage it into the leaves. Add in the sliced red onion, hydrated arame and top with sesames seeds and seaweed flakes. This is the type of dish that tastes better the longer you let it sit in the refrigerator. So good I could literally eat the whole bunch!

What have been your most useful vegan resources?

Stay tuned for more! And tell your friends;)

RAWmadan

So while all my roommates were Austin Texas for SXSW this past week week, and left in the apartment was just me, Mr. Bones and the residue of four girls with crazy hectic lives and probably the remains of a few parties that our hung-over selves did a skimpy job of cleaning up after. I took this week as a perfect opportunity to do a little detox; of our home and myself. I cleaned all surfaces and scraped the crust that collected on the bottom of our fridge and tossed anything that had been living in there for too long.

Like I said, I also felt that I needed to detox myself a little bit of the sludge that built up over midterms week. I figured since I would finally have some time (ended up not being nearly as much as I thought) I would try to stick to only clean, raw foods. I had dabbled in raw foodism a few summers ago but I think the fact that I lacked my own kitchen and general knowledge of nutrition back then, I didn’t really go about it in the best way.

While actually preparing all these raw meals was a bit time consuming, it was totally worth it and I definitely reaped many benefits including more energy, clearer skin (like, actually cleared up all existing blemishes and I still haven’t gotten any new ones since!) diminished food cravings, minimized anxiety and just all around boosted my mood! I was about 90% raw for 5 consecutive days (I think my tahini is not raw and I may have had some roasted nuts while baby sitting...whoops o well) but I felt better almost immediately and would suggest trying to go raw for a day here and there or even just incorporating more raw foods into your diet. I think since the weather is starting to get warmer (…and then randomly cold again?) we tend to naturally gravitate towards more fresh and lighter cooked foods. Some other things that I think also attributed to me feeling great this week include:

-taking vitamins daily

-dry brushing (exfoliates, good for blood flow and release of toxins)

-rubbed coconut oil all over my hair and body (and I’m so silky smooth because of it :)

-apple cider vinegar (diluted into a hair rinse and toner balances ph levels)

-yoga (felt like I was really able to concentrate on each movement and how it affected my body. Sounds all hippy-dippy I know, but I truly just felt so much more in-touch with my body. I also accidentally went to a Bikram yoga class for the first time (hey, it was advertised as “hot yoga”) and instead of running out of studio, I stayed, gave it a try and…absolutely LOVED IT. It was one of the most intense things I’ve ever done but it was great and I plan to incorporate it into my normal yoga routine. One of the best mistakes I’ve ever made!)

-went on a few jogs outside with Mr. Bones (although I don’t think running is good for our bodies (or at least mine) these run-jogs I went on made me feel strong and energized. It also forced me to spend more time out side, I got explore parts of my neighborhood I don’t generally get to and it also made Mr. Bones very happy, which made me happy.

-sleep (something I often don’t get as much as I like of.)

-no T.V.-I’m really not a big T.V. watcher, I’ll usually just watch a few shows on my computer from time to time but I really made and effort to spend less time in front of screens.

Okay…now onto the recipes!! Breakfast usually consisted of smoothies (which I actually ate with a spoon, out of a bowl, parfait-style, much more satisfying and pretty. Lunch and dinner were either salads or veg dishes and I really tried my best to be experiemental and keep things interesting. I’m going to post the recipes over a couple of days with some updates of other (non-food related!!) things I’ve been up to this week. Hope you try some of these recipes out and enjoy!

My oatmeal replacer:

So I’ve mentioned on here before that I pretty much eat oatmeal everyday for breakfast. While oatmeal is delicious and nutritious, it is not raw. Therefore I set out to find a way to fit all a filling mix of carbs and protein into my morning meal. Enter the smoothie parfait. The general formula was this:

1-2T ground flax seeds, soaked in 2-4T water for a bit before in the same bowl I ended up eating out of

1 cup frozen fruit

1 cup liquid for blending (this was either water or almond milk for me but you could also use juice)

1 stalk of whatever leafy greens you have lying around (virtually tasteless and then boom- you just ate raw leafy greens for breakfast without even realizing!)

Agave nectar for sweetness

Superfoods!

2T hulled, raw hemp seeds (for protein! But you can also use raw protein powder. Nutiva makes a great one)

1-2T cacao/ maca powder blend

1T cacao nibs sprinkled on top for a pretty presentation, energizing kick and satisfying crunch!

1T of whatever else I’ve got (this was mostly some pumpkin or sesame seeds-I’m really into crunchy smoothies- but gogi berries are great to. Other stand-out super foods I use when I can are spirilina, chia seeds...

**A note on superfoods: These are NOT SUPER hard to find. They can pretty much be found at any health food store or at Whole Foods. I got mine from the bulk bins at the 4th Street Food Co-op because it was the cheapest option and I was able to bring my own bags to eliminate packaging and not shipping! The Navitas Naturals site has an amazing selection as well as an array of recipes to give you ideas of how to actually use them.

Even when I’m not eating all raw, I think flax seed crackers make a fabulous snack. Unfortunately, packed varieties are so stupidly expensive that I never get to have them unless I make them myself (which I should really do more often). They are quite simple to make, the only thing is you have plan ahead about 12 hours before want to eat them. They’re great with dips, crumbled onto soups or salads, made into an open-face sandwich with avocado and veggies or eaten on their own like chips.

Flax Seed Crackers:

½ cup ground flax seeds, placed in a mixing bowl and soaked over night in 1 cup of water

½ white onion

crushed garlic to taste (I used just under a whole clove because I am a garlic fiend)

½ red bell pepper

½ orange bell pepper

1 stalk of celery

1 jalapeño pepper

1 large handful of mixed leafy greens

sea salt and black pepper to taste

Roughly chop all the veggies. I should mention that no two batches of flax seed crackers I make have ever been the same. I always use whatever I have on hand (I should mention that this is a great way to put to use whatever veggies you have that are on their way out) but this batch was particularly tasty so I decided to write down exactly what I put in, but feel free to shake it up! Anyways, so the veggies are chopped and then I decided to put them in the blender, but you can choose not to if you want a chunkier cracker. Then I dumped in the flax seeds, which are now a jelly-like substance from soaking. I whirled everything together and poured it back into the original bowl and stirred in the salt and pepper.

Then, using a spoon, I spread it onto my dehydrator trays **lined with parchment paper** very important to do this so that you do not end up with bumpy crackers and a crusty dehydrator (I know this from experience) I did this by cutting one strip of parchment paper the same width as the tray and then using it as a template to make more. Don’t worry too much about wasting so much parchment paper, you can totally just wipe them off and reuse! I found it to be easiest to drop a blob of the “batter” on the end of the parchment paper where it overlaps another, and spread it across in order to hold them all in place, making sure that each “loaf” is equal in thickness.

Then repeat until all the mix is on the tray, plug that bad boy in and walk away. The great thing about dehydrating is that you can’t really burn/ overcook/ mess anything up (at least I haven’t found a way to do so…yet) I left mine for about 10 hours, but you’re gonna want to switch the order of the trays around at least once so that they dehydrate evenly, and I also flipped the crackers about 2 hours before they were completely dehydrated. Return to find yummy and addictive crackers, Yay!

*While making these I felt inspired and decided to experiment with something I had never tried before. For a small portion of the batch I added some nutritional yeast and pressed some pumpkin seeds on top once I spread the mix on the tray. These were totally out of this world and I will definitely make them again. They were a bit denser tasting than the others, so I was happy to have both on hand for variation. The pumpkin seeds on top tasted great also looked really beautiful.

Here’s a salad recipe I used these flax crackers in. It’s really exceptional and filling too!

The Cheezer:

Dressing:

Juice of one lemon

1 T tahini

1t barley miso

1 splash of braggs liquid aminos

2 garlic “sections”, crushed

1 T nutritional yeast plus more for topping

black pepper, to taste

The salad:

Mixed greens

Gingered carrots (grated carrots and ginger mixed and refrigerated overnight)

Onion

Scallion

Daikon

Broccoli

Jalapeño pepper

Cheesy-pumpkin seed flax cracker, crushed

(red cabbage could be nice/ add color but I didn’t have any on hand)

Keep checking back for new recipes this week!

Do you have any favorite raw snacks you'd like to create on your own?

oatmeal-mixing it up!

Now that classes have started up again, it seems like I'm literally running out the door every morning. My favorite way to fuel up a busy winter day is with oatmeal. I personally like steal cut oats the best. They cook up faster than oat groats and feel heartier than rolled oats to me. I also just discovered Trader Joe's Quick Cooking Steal Cut Oats, which I've been subsisting on ever since. Now, I know you must be asking yourself, as a foodie, how do I not get bored with the same breakfast every freaking day? They key is to switch up what I add to the oats! Here are some of my favorites:

SWEET OATS:

1. Apple-cinnamon oats:

Chop or grate one whole apple. Bring 1 cup of apple cider (I like TJ's) to boil, add oats and lower heat to simmer. When about half way cooked, add chopped apple and lots of cinnamon (I also add ground flax seeds at this point). Pour the porridge mixture in a bowl and top with maple syrup and some nuts or seeds (I like chopped almonds) and raisins if you like!

I topped this bowl off with some pan-toasted rolled oats for some extra crunch!

2. Coconut-almond oats:

Cook oats as you normally would (using water or sometimes I use almond milk if I want something extra creamy) Top with shredded coconut, flax seeds and chopped almonds.

3. Simple berry oatmeal:

Cook oats normally, in salted water or non-dairy milk of choice. Top with fresh berries, such as blueberries and sliced strawberries. Top with aprox 1/2 T of maple syrup if you're feeling really wild :)

SAVORY OATS:

1. Chipotle-Cheezy Oats:

Add to cooked oats:

1 T ground flax seeds

1 T pumpkin seeds (pan toasting them until they brown/ pop adds a nice toasty flavor)

1 T nutritional yeast

1 pinch cayenne (or other spice of your choice, I've been using "hot peppeh" that I brought back from Ghana)

tons of black pepper

salt to taste

2. Simple Seaweed/Sesame Oats:

Cook oats normally. Top with flax and sesame seeds, occasionally half an ume plum if I feel like I need the extra health, and seaweed of choice. I have a nice three seaweed flake blend (dulse, laver and sea lettuce) and sometimes I crumple up half a sheet of nori and toss it in there too. Yum. Seaweed for breakfast!

What's your favorite way to cook up oatmeal?

plastic state of mind

chocolate :)

I always have so much fun when I go out with my friend Jessika. We met 5 years ago at this single semester art school in Napa Valley, CA. Now we both go to college in New York and though we don't see each other as much as I'd like, it always seems like it was just yesterday even when we go six months without seeing each other's faces. We are also the best dinner buddies-we seem to always be in the mood for the same things! The other night we went out for a delicious dinner at Angelica's Kitchen. I got a combo bowl, which was yummy but kinda boring to photograph. Jessika also shares my love for chocolate, so after dinner we headed over to Stogo for tea and treats. Since we love all the same things, we thought it would be fun to share a few different chocolates. Here's what we got:

From L-R: Cocao V Cookies and Cream Bark, Peanut and Puffed Rice Cluster, Toasted Edamame Cluster, Spiced Dark Chocolate Tile (almost too pretty to eat...almost:) and two Cocoa Agave Truffles made by Brooklyn based chocolate company Fine and Raw Chocolate.

Everything was so delicious! Our favorite hands down was the spiced tile. It legitimately tasted like a creamy chocolate chai latte in your mouth. We were squealing in our seats, describing the hints of cinnamon and vanilla undertones. We're pretty much chocolate connoisseurs!

Jess holding up the lovely spiced tile. Two pretty things in one picture!