Cookies, Cookies, Curry, and Udon

This weekend was a doozy. I had a spinal injection done on Friday and, although I should have been off my feet for a majority of the weekend, I had things to do! In the last week I've had 3 baking orders come in for shipping this week. It all just hit me at the same time. So on Saturday I just worked for an hour or so, then laid down for a while, then worked for a while, then laid down...you get the picture. It was pretty annoying and made the baking take SO much longer. By Sunday evening I had completed batches of my vegan Mud Puddle Cookies, Treasure Chest cookies, sugar cookies, and had the dough ready for Linzer Tarts chilling in the fridge.

Vegan Mud Puddle Cookies

Photo by Justin Lewis, filmaperture Photography

Vegan Treasure Chest Cookies

Photo by Justin Lewis, filmaperture Photography

So in the interest of making things easy for dinner, I turned to my favorite recipe source, Post Punk Kitchen. I brought up Isa's Broccoli Curry Udon recipe and got to work. A few changes - we didn't have any red onion, so we used shallot instead and I don't like my onion crunchy like she suggests so I cooked it until it was translucent. I added about a cup of edamame and a handful of mushrooms and yellow bell pepper for some color, texture, and sweetness.

I made it just like she suggested, but next time I may just throw it all in the wok instead of cooking everything separately. It's still a super easy recipe, either way, and very quick to throw together. 

After dinner, I whipped up 2 batches of my vegan royal icing and got to work icing the first coat on my sugar cookies for a 4th of July cookie order that needs to be shipped by tomorrow at the latest! Eeep! Cutting it close. I was up until midnight icing these guys. This evening I've got to put the finishing decorating touches on them - I'll get a MUCH earlier start than last night - let them dry all night, get up early and package them and then I should be all set.

And then it's off to finish the Linzer Tarts (probably on Tuesday night) and get that package out the door. Phew! I shouldn't complain; I'm always trying to drum up business, which is really hard when you're just starting out, and I'm so thankful for friends who think of me when they want a vegan treat, are having a party, or need to get a special present out to someone. I'll just need to take it easy for the rest of the week to make sure my back heals properly!

And that leads me to asking for your help - I'm on a quest to find a really excellent nutrition/health book that talks about vegan nutrition but also gives suggestions for how various foods/herbs/supplements interact with our bodies and how we can be more in-tune to getting our bodies what they need. I want to learn this stuff and really understand what's going on in my body and how I can make myself feel more healthy. I'm only 26 and sometimes I feel like my body's trying to fall apart on me. Anyone out there have any suggestions?