Vegan Twice Cooked Mushroom and Vegetable Stew

Not a photo of my stew, but a pretty photo anyways. I don't have a camera right now!
My stew sort of looked like this ! Photo taken from here !

My friend Haellen was raving about her awesome twice-cooked beef stew, and it inspired me to make a veggie version!

It is so thick and Earthy :) Filled with that savoury Umami flavor that I crave on -7 degree days ..

Here is the recipe ..

(As always I made a huge batch to have enough for leftovers and didn't measure a thing .. )

Boil a pot full of water with quinoa, brown rice, salt, and a few bay leaves. These things cook the longest so they go first. I also added dried mushrooms in this step. I have an "assortment bag" of dried shrooms that my mom sent me, and they smell like the inside of a Chinese grocery store .. but taste delicious cooked and add a really Earthy Umami flavor to the broth. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Add buckwheat to the soup and cook for 10 minutes.

Add chopped potatoes, carrots, celery, rosemary, thyme, and cumin and cook for 25 minutes.

This is the first half of the soup. You could definitely just stop here and have a delicious soup ready to eat. I, however, set out to make a thick stew, so the recipe continues ..

After you have cooked this part, transfer it to a food processor or a high speed blender and process until it is  smooth. (Note to self: This creamy soup tastes so much like gravy for mashed potatoes, but is totally vegan! Really looking forward to making some mashed potatoes in the future and using the soup as the saus! )

Now, follow the above recipe all over again, but also using the "gravy" that you you just made .

This way when it is done, you will have a thick veggie stew with plenty of "chunkiness" to it from cooking it twice, with double ingredients!

YUM.

I think this soup would also be good with added coconut milk, chopped scallions, and tofu, but I don't have any of those things on hand so possibly I will try that another time!

IS THIS FOR REAL? Anxiety and freaking out in a good way !

OMG! IS this for realZ YO? Im going to South America? In less than three weeks I am arriving in MeXico  City !?

What the what ?!

Yeah so the past two days this trip feels more real to me than ever ! Like, it's happening.

I feel anxiety for sure, but just in an awesome excited way just like I get myself before every "deep" adventure I go on .. but this one is just .. different! I mean this is a HUGE trip!

I have never been out of the country after an age I could remember ... I mean me and Dan are about to become homeless bum gypsies travelling across COUNTRIES! ACROSS WILDERNESS! ahhh .. camping :) I can't wait to re-connect with LA TIERRA! JEEEYZUS I am crazy excited! So much energy inside me right now :PPPPPPPPPPPPP

Just gotta keep it light, keep it funny, keep it gay :)

AMOR
PAZ
Y
ALGO NUEVO!

SOFIE 

Everything is coming together nicely for the trip :)

I am so very very happy that everything is coming together so smoothly just in time for my departure from Vail to Mexico City on the 24th.

As fas as gear goes, Im going pretty minimal and Im sure I will learn a lot about what I do / do not need on such backpacking trips soon.

My Osprey pack and Marmot sleeping bag where repaired with much haste by the lovely people at both companies, and I invested some ding dogs $ into a new pair of Keen hiking boots, a sleeping bag compression sack, a sleeping bag liner, a new menstrual cup (which I hope works better than my current one - oy), a water bladder, and a journal for journaling and taking notes along the way. We also got a water filter  and Dan has one of those shmancy little backpacking gas burners for cooking oatmeal and hippie slop and whatnots.

I so wanted to make a video about what all I am bringing with me on this trip, but alas my fancy iphone encased in its brand new gifted Otter Box was stolen on Christmas. Bah Humbug. Hehe. Maybe I will borrow my roommate's phone to do it or dig out my ancient (ha!) digital camera : )

If not, I will for sure make a list on here and compare when I get back of what I actually used. I hope to be able to update the blog/facebook from the road via Daniel's cellphone.. we shall see.

Other than that, still haven't told my spa job that I am leaving and honestly am quite nervous about doing it. Jobs here definitely want you to stay through the winter season, and I would hate to leave on bad terms because it's an awesome place to work and I would love to have my job back someday if I decide to come back to Vail . January 9th is the date that I have chosen to give  my resignation, but something inside me is urging  me to tell them sooner so they have more than 2 weekends to hire another massage therapist if they need one.

Even if they decide to be meanie-heads and take me off the schedule when I tell them (I really hope they don't do this, and kindof doubt that they will) I have already earned enough $cash mo mo$ for the trip ( I HOPE) and will continue working at the Bucks until my departure date.

I love you all!
Im exhausted from all the butt rubbing Ive been doing lately - Christmas week in Vail is an insanity fest and I am much looking forward to my full day off Wednesday

Sofie K

Planning the trip!!!

So many things to do in South America, so little time to plan! We will be winging it a lot, im sure! Spontaneous adventures and random cosmically aligned heart love synchronicities await us world travelers !

Planning! Reading! Writing notes! Hustlin for the next month but not forgetting to act marthafarkin silly!!!

- Love and Adventure
Sofie K

South America!!!

Just decided to go on a 6 month backpacking trip from Mexico City down to Patagonia. YES!

:) Will obviously be updating the blog with many future adventures and vlogs! 

Sofie K 

Vlog 2 - To South America or not to South America?

Talking about Adventure and Vlog 1

Today I recorded a Vlog video diary :)

More on adventure:

What is adventure? I know what I think it means: doing something exciting that you've never done before, maybe even something risky!

Here's what Dictionary.com says it means:

noun
1. an exciting or unusual experience
2. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure
3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome
4. a commercial or financial speculation of any kind; venture

So why am I feeling like I my life right now isn't adventurous right now when it totally is? My mind was just clinging to the idea (that many hold, I think) that you have to go somewhere to go on a grand adventure. And you can, and it will probably be epic. Nothing wrong with that, both ways are equal in my mind now.

I am now certain and content with the idea that I can stay exactly where I am and still live adventurously. Have exciting and unusual experiences that are risky and which have uncertain outcomes. That kindof sounds like life.

I kindof think that is the whole concept of the freely living blog... to let go of patterns that rule my life and live more freely, adventurously, with less expectations of outcomes and just taking life in as it is :) Welcoming the uncertain!

Anyways, why is adventure so important anyways? (I'm not saying it is not, but its an interesting question nonetheless.)

Does it make our lives seem more worthwhile, more exciting?

Just trying to look at it from kindof a Buddhist/ego questioning perspective. But .. I want to paint. Can't stop to think ..

Ha!

Love and awesome adventures!
Sofie K

p.s.

Pema Chodron..
As human beings we share a tendency to scramble for certainty whenever we realize that everything around us is in flux. In difficult times the stress of trying to find solid ground-something predictable and safe to stand on-seems to intensify. But in truth, the very nature of our existence is forever in flux. Everything keeps changing, whether we're aware of it or not.
What a predicament! We seem doomed to suffer simply because we have a deep-seated fear of how things really are. Our attempts to find lasting pleasure, lasting security, are at odds with the fact that we're part of a dynamic system in which everything and everyone is in process."
(Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change)