unfaithful

my last post was my hundredth.

this post is the hundredth and one.

i am announcing my infidelity to blogger.

i kind of like tumblr a lot.

i didn't think i would.

but i did.

czech it out.

what i have learned :

i'm pretty sure there's more to life than being really really ridiculously good looking.

LATFH at navrati

the nine days of navrati began on friday! navrati is this festival of durga ( i think. i know it is one of the female goddesses.) where you kind of just dance around.
I felt really out of place, though. I didn't know anyone (there were tons of kids my age there) except for the other Shivani.

But I did have fun. Espesh during the dandiya part. I ended up joining a group of people I didn't know because I wanted to be a larger group than the group of four that I was in previously. I left when they wanted to start using hands rather than sticks.

the best part was that I saw an Indian hipster. I never thought I would see one in such a traditional function. He was normally dressed in a long white shirt with white pants, typical. But the added accessories deemed him a hipster: the buddy holly glasses and the black and white scarf.

It is safe to say I'm in love......

Though the thirty days of veganism have been completed, I am continuing on with this lifestyle.
Being vegan forces me to eat healthier.
I enjoy the Tofutti cream cheeze a bit too much.
Daiya can go die-a. (not very clever, I know.)
I definitely feel more energetic, even with less hours of sleep.
etc, etc.
However, yesterday I took a little break. I went downtown with Gill to eat dinner, and since it was a mexican restaurant (Sabor Latino), I decided it would be nice to eat cheese.
I actually have forgotten what cheese tasted like in my month hiatus from it, so I was kind of excited to eat it again. BUT, I did not miss cheese. No.
The funny thing is that something in the burrito tasted like cabbage to me. For a while, I actually was wondering if they had put cabbage in a burrito (They definitely did not. I checked the menu.), and was super confused. It wasn't until I saw that the "cabbage" was melted did I realize it was cheese.
I'll take that as a sign.
Also, I don't think it is mere coincidence that I feel some sort of acne coming up the day I eat cheese again.

I also tried Gillians' horchata, and I really enjoyed the taste.

But the most delightful drink I have ever drank in my entire existence was at the The Chocolate House. Their hot chocolate is to die for. I felt as if I was drinking melted chocolate. I am in amour.
I will become a vegetarian for the amount of time it takes me to finish this drink.
And the options: white, dark, milk! I NEED TO TRY THEM ALL MULTIPLE TIMES.

vani wants

this shirt.

from asos.

swann et vincent

maybe i am stuck in nostalgia, or i am craving french-italian food.

whatever the reason, i want to eat their creamily delicious alfredo.

1yF3

I really am not liking this whole senior year biz.

But, on the bright side, forum day was last thursday/friday, and I think it was probably one of the best I've been to. I really like my forum this year. They're funny. And not much arguing is going on during forum time.

What I have learned from this forum trip is that I am utterly horrendous at go karting. My driving skills have never been better.

I have fake bangs in my picture now.

I really feel the need to dye my hair a lighter brown, but I don't want to damage it (already did that, not going back).

My grandmother is here. It is interesting. There is definitely some miscommunication going on between us. She is old, and my Gujrati is simple okay. My mom enjoys laughing at me. More so, when I'm trying to speak Hindi to my neighbors' grandmother. I'm getting there!

I update too much. I don't really know what else to write on here.

0000000k@yy?

Day 6 of Vegan Lyfe: The Deceiving Ways of Casein

Almost a week has passed since I have started my month long journey as a vegan! And tomorrow marks the first day of my last year of high school - a relatively scary thought.

I have tried two cool vegan items since Day 1 has passed:

Tofutti's "Better Than Cream Cheese"

Tofutti's cream cheese is definitely not better than Philadelphia's cream cheese, but it definitely outranks other brands. I think I might turn it into a spicier cream cheese, though. Tofutti does have other cream cheese flavours, but I wouldn't recommend buying them because they have hydrogenated soy bean oil. That is bad because hydrogenated oils of any sort have high levels of trans fat in them. This increases the bad cholesterol in your body, and decreases the good. So, basically, it makes you fat. Thankfully, Toffuti did make a non-hydrogenated version of their cream cheese.
Moral: BUY THE YELLOW TUB OF TOFUTTI CREAM CHEESE, NOT THE OTHER COLORS.

Daiya Mozzarella Shreds

I also tried Daiya Mozzarella shreds, a vegan substitute for cheese. You know how Whole Foods has food samples out for one to try? Well 70% of the food items they had out included cheese in them. The three that I could eat were: green olive in spices, traditional island blend coffee (w/o milk, obviously), and really good pomegranate juice. BUT THE CHEESES LOOKED SO DELISH.
Okay, over it. Daiya looks really weird, but tastes almost like real made from cows cheese. I could never eat it plain, but I used it in a grilled cheese sandwich, and it tasted pretty good. It definitely has that melt factor. I can't wait to try it on pizza. But it is really expensive: $4.39, as far as shredded cheese is concerned.

Where Vani Almost Lost Her Vegan Powers

I went to Kroger, right, and was in their 'Natural Foods Section' to buy soy milk and to see if they had Tofutti cream cheese (which they did), and saw the sliced cheeses that they had. One of the packages was marked vegan, and I assumed that all of the others must be vegan as well. And that was the story of how a package of mozzarella veggie cheese slices found its' way into my cart. Unfortunately for that package of cheese, I decided decided to read the label before we went to check out and noticed that Machiavellan milk protein known as CASEIN. Fuhhcking prick.

And I did allude to Scott Pilgrim in this post... except i would have to eat non-vegan food three times to actually have these powers taken away from me.

Day 1 of Vegan Lyfe

Today, not yesterday, is the first of September, and also the first day of my being vegan.
I'm going to use this blog to record my observations of my month as a vegan (and perhaps the rest of my life, if I enjoy the experience.)

I ate a pretty normally, akin to what I eat from a day to day basis -- without the dairy. I didn't have a glass of milk, but I did have a glass of the oh so yummy chocolate soy milk LITE (this is only 90 calories a cup. INSANE.)
And I did get my calcium intake in with CALCIUM FORTIFIED orange juice.

I found out that so much of the junk food we know today is vegan! Which is kind of disconcerting, because it may not contain milk in it, but it does contain a bunch of chemicals that I can't even pronounce. Oreos, Trix, Famous Amo's chocolate chip cookies, and even Lay's potato chips all constitute as vegan.
I wonder if there are people out there who are junk food vegans... knowing the world, there probably are. Eating chemically processed foods, even though they technically are vegan, still aren't healthy. Being vegan does not make it any more okay for you to eat it, without guilt, then it does for an average omnivore, or even a vegetarian. At least when you were an omnivore/vegetarian, you still got some of the requisite vitamins and proteins. When you're a junk food vegan, you're not getting those vitamins or protein, because you probably aren't eating the fruits and vegetables necessary to get those elements, or not enough.

WHAT I MISS: Indian yoghurt. Oh how I was yearning to grab a spoonful to dump onto my lentils and rice (or as I would say correctly, but spell wrong: dhal bath).