Vegan MoFo: stroganoff, shoping, shampoo, and the salad bar.

I dyed my hair last night. I used the same color (medium brown) and brand my friend uses, because her hair looks awesome. Mine came out really really dark though. I kind of hated it at first. But the last time I dyed my hair brown, it faded over time, plus I don't want my hair to fall out, so I figured I'd wait awhile and see how I do with the new look. This morning I still hated it, so I washed it three times in the shower. It didn't lighten it that much. But in some lights I kind of like it now. It's pretty much the closest dye is going to come to my natural color...I think, anyway; I haven't had a full head of my natural hair color in a while. And there's a reason for that--I still can't tell if it looks good on me. It's just kind of bleh. Shit, now I'll have to develop a personality or something. LOL. I can't tell if D hates it and is just being nice, or if he just doesn't like that I "keep changing just about everything possible". He doesn't get the concept of winterizing.

So today I woke up feeling a little shitty. Which for me, usually means pre-really-shitty. Sore throat, achy body, tired as hell, that kind of mess. None the less, I took the aforementioned shower, got my ass (and my kid's) ready, and ventured out to find a Halloween costume for him. He wanted to be a dinosaur--a green dinosaur. And Wal-Mart, Target, the Halloween store they put up next to the mall, Old Navy, the OTHER Wal-Mart near us--nobody had a dinosaur costume. I mean come on, that is not a really far-fetched thing to dress up as, is it? Anyway, we took a break for lunch (my real reason for making a trip out) that I had been planning, to meet up with my friend Laura. She is vegetarian too (not vegan tho). We met at Ruby Tuesday, which has few vegetarian menu items, and no vegan ones, except for the most amazing salad bar I've ever been to. I mean, spinach, 3 kinds of lettuce mixes, tomatoes, beets, dried cranberries, edemame, chick peas, mushrooms, just on and on. I had two plates and I was stuffed. It was delicious.

After lunch, at Laura's suggestion, I took the cranky and exhausted kid to Meijer...and lo and behold, they had exactly one dinosaur costume. And it was green. And one size too big, but at this point, who cares. More room for layers underneath. Its cold here! I made it extra cool by putting felt "claws" on the arm and leg openings that will extend over his hands. Yay, I'm so excited! Then we went back to Old Navy to return some of the green clothes I bought (I was going to make a costume, which would've been even cooler, but that would have ended up costing twice or 3 times as much!!), and then to Wal Mart where I got a bandana, a sash, and a plastic sword...I'm going to be a pirate. What would've been really cute is a parrot costume--this is the last year he'll be small enough I could get away with this--dress him as a parrot and me as a pirate and set him on my shoulders! But parrot is even harder to find than green dinosaur, and it wasn't what the boy wanted.

He's been sleeping a lot lately. He won't take his nap til 4 in the afternoon, and then he just doesn't get up til morning. (Yesterday & today). Maybe he was starting to feel like I was and he's sleeping it off. I'm about to go do the same thing.

But first let me blog about this stroganoff I made. I was craving some good, hearty comfort food, and I knew D would appreciate that too. I basically used the recipe off the Peta website (http://www.vegcooking.com/veganMenus-13.asp), but I made my own sauce because I can never find vegan mushroom gravy.
1 lb cooked pasta (I used whole wheat rotini)
I sliced & sauteed some Tempeh, rather than using beef style crumbles, then took that out to add to the sauce at the end. Sauce recipe later.