lovinlivinvegan

Soap Making

2011-12-30T14:20:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone! As most of you know we are in the process of remodeling our kitchen, which still isn't finished yet, so still no food to blog about. Yes, we are slow. We did take off Christmas weekend though to be with our families, so that put us behind. We hope to put our new counter tops in Saturday and hopefully "almost" finish things up over the weekend.

Below is a picture of me making soap back in November. Yep, I made some soap for Christmas presents. They didn't turn out how I wanted them to, but they still turned out great. I thought the recipe was going to make more than what it actually did, but it didn't. Tony made me a soap box to pour the mixture into, but since I didn't have enough to fill the soap box up, I poured the mixture into silicone muffin cups. Tony's genius idea. So, instead of square bars of soap I ended up with round bars, which turned out pretty cute.

After the soap hardened in their molds for 48 hours, I dumped them out to cure for 3 plus weeks. I had to flip them everyday so they would cure evenly. All that has something to do with the lye that's in them. The ingredients that I used to make the soap were coconut oil, shea butter, almond oil, water, sodium hydroxide (lye), and warm vanilla sugar fragrance oil. We have been using the soap for several weeks now and absolutely love it. It leaves your skin feeling so soft and silky. Tony's already asking when I'll be making more. My next batch of soap is going to be a type of oatmeal soap made with homemade almond milk. It will make a bigger batch, so I will be able to use the soap box that Tony made for me. My goal is to be able to make that around mid January. If the oatmeal soap turns out as good as this batch did, I'll be doing a giveaway. The only bad thing about making the soap is that you have to let it cure for at least 3 weeks. It's very hard to wait that long. :o)

Here we have a close up of one right after I took it out of the mold. Pretty bright looking huh.

Here's a bar after they had cured for over a month. I took this picture with my phone, so the picture is a little on the dark side. The soap did darken though as it cured.

Here's one all wrapped up ready to be gifted.

I haven't heard how everyone liked the soap, but I hope they like it as much as Tony and I do.

I hope everyone has a save and Happy New Year! It will be next year before I blog again and hopefully it will be with pictures of my newly remodeled kitchen.

~Peace~

Miso Soup

2011-12-20T14:06:00.001-06:00

Hey all! I hope this post finds everyone well. I've been away from the blog world for the last couple of weeks, because we are remodeling our kitchen. We literally have it gutted. After Christmas I'll post some before and after pictures. It has been something that we have been wanting to do for sometime now, so we decided to do that for our Christmas. We were with out a stove for over a week, so that meant a week of eating out. I never thought I would say this, but I am so tired of restaurant food! We got our new stove delivered Friday, but it was the wrong one. Thank goodness Best Buy left it for us to use until we get the right one delivered, which we should get on Christmas Eve. The funny thing is that we have a stove but no counter tops, so it is still very difficult to cook. It's definitely been an experience to say the least :o) But I know it's all going to be worth it when it's all finished.

We weren't able to get much done last week, because Tony got sick, then I came down with it. It knocked us both for a loop. We are on the road to recovery now, so last night I decided to make my first batch of miso soup. I had to go grocery shopping before I could make it, because I was out of all veggies! It's not fun being sick and not having veggies in the house! For the soup, I went by a couple of different recipes and came up with the below recipe. I thought it turned out great. It was exactly what my body has been screaming for. :o) I also bought some Echinacea tea yesterday, so hopefully we will be 100% well in the next few days.

Here's the Miso Soup recipe.

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 green onions, sliced
1 cup chopped kale
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup white mushrooms, sliced
1/2 package tofu, drained and diced
3 tbsp yellow miso paste
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 cups water
2 cup vegetable broth

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, heat olive oil and saute the onions and garlic for 1-2 minutes. Then add the kale, carrots, and mushrooms and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add tofu, water, vegetable broth, ginger, and yellow miso paste and stir together. Lower the heat and let simmer for another 5-10 minutes.

I probably won't be posting again until after Christmas, so I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I will be trying to catch up on my blog reading some this week as my work permits, so see you soon! :o)

~Peace~

A Few Eats From The Weekend

2011-12-06T13:02:00.000-06:00

Hey there! I hope everyone is doing well! I got a surprise in the mail Saturday. I got my new Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook....YAY. I glanced at it Saturday night and saw a lot of yummy simple recipes that I can't wait to try. The first one that I tried was a breakfast recipe. Sunday morning I made the Marmalade French Toast on page 40. The recipe called for apricot marmalade, which I didn't have, so I used orange marmalade. Tony and I both thought it was great. I put a little too much maple syrup on mine, so it was a tad to sweet for me. I had not problem devouring it though.

Saturday night I made HH's Cajun Meatloaf and Brown Gravy. The brown gravy recipe can be found here on her website. I'm trying to stay away from wheat for a while, so I used brown rice flower instead of whole wheat pastry flour, and it was just as good...maybe even better. :o) I've tried HH's other meatloaf recipes, but hadn't tried the cajun yet, so I thought it was time to give it a try. I'm so glad that I did, because it was very good. I also made twice baked potatoes. I didn't have any vegan sour cream, but did have some vegan cream cheese, so I used the cream cheese to replace the sour cream. I thought the cream cheese was great in the potatoes. In fact, it was so great that I doubt I'll ever use sour cream again. I topped it with vegan cheddar cheese and imitation bacon bits. It's been a long time since I've bought imitation bacon bits. When I opened the jar, I poured some in my hand and threw them into my mouth. At that moment I had a flash back into my childhood of getting in trouble for eating all the imitation bacon bits as a snack...ha I had forgotten how much I loved them.

Sunday night I made some potato soup. This was the first time that I didn't use a recipe. I totally winged it, and it turned out great. I cooked my potatoes in just enough water to cook them, then added a can of cream of mushroom soup, about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth, 1/3 container of vegan cream cheese, 1 tsp onion powder, salt, and pepper. The soup is done once you get the cream cheese incorporated into the mixture.. I then topped it with vegan cheddar cheese and imitation bacon bits....YUM!

Last night we made pizza. Looks good right? Well, in this case looks are very deceiving! First off, I was supposed to have gone some where last night, so I hadn't planned on being home to cook. Yes, Tony was going to have to fend for himself. My plans fell through though, and I ended up being at home with no idea of what to cook for supper. We had a can of crescent rolls in the refrigerator, so we decided to make a pizza crust out of it. Tony rolled it out and put the dough onto our pizza stone. He then added the sauce and our toppings and put the pizza into the oven. I cooked it for about 15 minutes. I took a big ole bite of my pizza that looked so good and bleh.... The "pizza crust" was all doughy! With that being said, we will never use crescent rolls for pizza crust again. It may have been better if we had cooked the crust some before adding everything, but we didn't do that...oh well. My half of the pizza is the left side, and the stuff that looks like meat is some cajun meatloaf. The topping part of the pizza was very good. We sorta turned into kids and ended up just eating the topping off the pizza....ha

Oh, one more thing about the pizza. Tony thought he would sit the pizza stone on the stove eye and try to cook the crust a little more. He had the stove eye on a med/high heat. BIG mistake! All the sudden I heard a loud pop and what do you know....the pizza stone broke...it broke into three pieces. I guess the lesson learned here is to never use your pizza stone to cook with on the stove eye! :o) Lucky for us we have an extra one that we have never used. :o)

~Peace~

T G I F

2011-12-02T16:25:00.000-06:00

I don't know about you, but I'm glad the work week is over. Let the weekend begin. :o) Maggie lives for the weekends as well, because she knows we will be home to spend time with her. She loves her blankets!

There hasn't really been any new food action going on this week. I did make this Chickpeas Rice recipe that I found over at Chef In You though. The recipe can be found here. I came across this after going to the Chef In You site to check out the Tofu Turkey recipe that Andrea made for Thanksgiving. The chickpeas rice was good, but I think I will leave out the cloves the next time. There was something about it that my taste buds didn't really care for, and I think that's what it was. Other than that it was very good. I personally think it would be better as a curry dish. I made some baked tofu to go along with the rice. I sprinkled a little BBQ seasoning on the tofu for a little different flavor. I didn't really taste the BBQ flavor for some reason though. That doesn't mean that it wasn't good. It hit the spot and oddly enough it went great with the rice.

One night I had a couple of Boca chik'n patties with marinara sauce on them along with some roasted Brussels and sweet potato fries. This is always a favorite for me.

Don't our animals just have it made...I know Maggie sure does....she knows how to spend her time. :o)

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow....

2011-11-29T15:12:00.000-06:00

This morning I woke up to snow on the ground. Yay, our first snow of the year. I don't ever remember us getting snow this early in the winter though. I wonder if this is what's to come for the cold winter season? I do love snow. It makes me wish I was still a kid, so I could have snow days and get to stay home. Luckily this snow didn't stick to the streets. Even though the snow didn't stick the the streets, I can guarantee that everyone was at the grocery store yesterday stocking up on bread and milk. The mention of snow around here puts people in a panic state of mind. :o)

Yesterday afternoon I was having some serious stomach pains. I'm not sure what they were from, but they lasted until about 8:00 last night. With that being said, I did not feel like cooking supper, so Tony dove right in and took care of things while I laid on the couch cuddled up with Maggie. We had planned on having pizza last night, and below is what my pizza looked like after Tony got finished making it. How good does that look? He even took the picture. He used my left over fajita veggies that I brought home from Casa Marina (our favorite Mexican place) Saturday night. He also added some Roma tomatoes and used some Newman's spaghetti sauce along with some Daiya mozzarella cheese. He told me to remember that if it wasn't good that it was made with love. :o) No worries though....It was delicious, and actually better than the ones that I've been making lately.

~Peace~

Better Late than Never......

2011-11-28T15:59:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday! I know this is a little late, but hey....late is better than never....right? Here's the recap of my Thanksgiving. I was a little like this after we ate our Thanksgiving meal.

I made this Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherds Pie from Fat Free Vegan to take for Thanksgiving. It turned out great. I'm sorry, but I don't have a picture of it. I got in such hurry to get out the door that I forgot to photograph it. After I realized that I never took a picture, I decided that I would take a picture of my Thanksgiving plate, but I left the camera out in the car. I was about to starve, so I didn't go get it....sorry. I had planned on taking some roasted veggies, but was told there would be plenty of veggies that I could eat, so I didn't make any. After glancing over everything I asked about certain dishes to make sure they were vegan, and dug in. Later on that evening my niece commented on how good the green beans were. Then, out it came...the green beans were cooked in beef brother. WHAT? At that moment my little niece looked at me and said "you ate green beans didn't you?" Yep, I sure did, because I was told they were okay for me to eat. Apologies came from my SIL, and she said that she never thought about that not making them vegan. Again, I explained what a vegan was, and explained my diet and what it did and did not consist of. Of course, I'm not the type of person that just blows my top, but I was very upset. I felt like throwing up and my insides felt all dirty and violated! After that I found out that several other dishes that were there were not actually vegan either, but was told they were. I didn't eat those though...thank goodness. From now on, I will for sure be taking my own meal to any family function that we have. Shen, I know..... It's not just family though , no one here in the South understands the full meaning of what a vegan is. They all seem to think it just means that you don't eat meat. No matter how many times you explain it, they just don't get it. I have to admit, I debated about whether I should blog about my Thanksgiving or not, because I have family that reads my blog, but I decided that I wanted to and I hope that it doesn't offend anyone.

So with all that being said, we all did a lot of this over the remainder of the long weekend.. I started to blog several times, but just couldn't bring myself to it. :o)

I did take a little time to make Isa's Marbled Banana Bread. I think I swirled the batter a little too long though. It almost looks like plain ole chocolate banana bread. Sure did taste good though. Tony suggested adding walnuts to it the next time. I think that would be a great addition.

I also made some granola. I've been wanting to make some for a while now, but just haven't done it. I finally got around to it Saturday morning. I used oats, hemp seeds, walnuts, shredded coconut, dried cranberries, dried apricots, wheat germ, safflower oil, brown sugar, rice syrup, and vanilla. I used Alicia Silverstone's recipe in The Kind Diet as a guide to go by. If you don't have her book, you can find the recipe here.

I didn't have anything to take for lunch today, so I went to the cafeteria in hopes to get a salad. I was a little too late though. They were all gone. I lucked up though, they had some steamed veggies....yay!

Anyway, I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog reading. I do hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend and I hope you aren't as behind at work as I am. :o)

~Peace~

Blood Circulating Smoothie and Artichokes

2011-11-22T13:02:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! I can't believe Thanksgiving is in two more days. What are you having to eat? We are going to my sister-n-laws to eat with the Tony's family. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to eat. I'm taking a Shepard's Pie as my one dish to take, but now to figure out what to take for myself while everyone else indulges on the "bad" stuff. :) I thought about making the Tofu Turkey in Happy Herbivore. Has anyone ever tried that before? If so, how was it?

This morning I made a green smoothie to try to help improve my blood circulation. I stay cold all the time...I mean I literally freeze, so I decided to do some research on the web and I really think that I have poor blood circulation. All the symptoms described me to the T. I read up on what spices and herbs are supposed to be good for improving your blood circulation. Ginger and Cayenne pepper happen to be among them, so here's my blood circulation smoothie for this morning.

1 kale leaf

1 small banana

1 Clementine (peeled)

1 tbs ginger

1 tbs black strap molasses

1/2 apple

1/4 cup frozen mango chunks

1 cup water

a pinch of cayenne

a few ice cubes (I used 3)

Throw it all in a blender and blend until smooth. I've never been a big fan of spicy drinks, but I have to admit that I really liked this. Today I used a very small pinch of cayenne, but tomorrow I think I will use a little more. The smoothie was sweet when I took my first drink, but all the sudden the spiciness came out, which I liked. Another plus is that it gave me a good boost of energy. I always need energy!

For my mid morning snack I had a bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal. This stuff is GOOD! Thanks Shen for recommending it.

About the artichokes...well, I like them...I mean really like them. I decided to make FoodFeuds "Artichoke to Death" dish, and all I can say is WOW! This was one of the best meals! It was so different, in a very good way. The tahini sauce was to die for. I decided to try a bite at first without the sauce and then a bite with the sauce to see which way was the best. The addition of the sauce was the only way to go. Maud...you're a genius. :o) I think I will try artichokes in a salad next. Oh yeah....Tony decided that he needed some pineapple with his supper, so he fried some pineapple in some coconut oil....OMG...talk about good!

I tried the chocolate soy pudding for my afternoon snack yesterday. It was rich and creamy and tasted like the dairy pudding that I used to eat in my pre vegan days. I'll definitely buy this again.

I hope everyone has a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

~Peace~

Weekend Eats........

2011-11-15T15:13:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! I've been pretty busy, so I haven't taken the time to blog over the past several days. Here's a few pics of what I've been eating. First up is my favorite....a mango green smoothie. I had to post it, because the bubbles on top look like two eyes and two little nostrils. :o) Do you see it?

Last night I made a sweet potato casserole for two. I was watching the Food Network channel Sunday and saw Anne Burrell make a sweet potato casserole that sounded so good. I tried to remember her secret ingredients, so I could make it last night. I didn't want to make a large batch just in case it didn't turn out good. It turned out wonderful though. I loved addition of the citrus!

1 large sweet potato
2 tbs vegan butter
1 tsp cinnamon
juice of one Clementine (Ann used an orange, but a Clementine was all I had)
the zest of one Clementine (Ann used the zest of an orange)
a splash of almond milk

TOPPING
1/4 cup old fashion oats (I may have used a little more, I didn't measure...sorry)
1 tbs vegan butter
2 tbs brown sugar
a dash of cinnamon

Peel and chop the potato then boil for about 20 minutes or until tender. Once tender, transfer the potatoes to a bowl and mash with a fork, then mix in the butter, cinnamon, Clementine zest and juice. Add a splash of almond milk if the potatoes are to thick. Transfer mixture to a small casserole dish.
For the topping, put the oats, butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar in a small food processor and pulse until everything is mixed and lumpy. Sprinkle topping over sweet potatoes and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

I also made a veggie stir fry for supper last night....not the best combo...I know. It sure was good though.

One night Tony cooked supper and made veggie fajitas. They consisted of onions, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, and roasted chickpeas. They were so good. This was the first time that I put roasted chickpeas in my fajitas, and it won't be the last. They were a great addition. Tony is now in charge of making fajitas, he just doesn't know that yet.

I did roast the chickpeas though. I drained, rinsed, and dried the chickpeas, then put spread them out on a baking sheet. I sprayed them with a little cooking spray and then sprinkled some chili powder, paprika, and a little salt on them . I put those bad boys in the oven on 350 and baked them for about 30 minutes.

So far this is my favorite spice blend for the roasted chickpeas. The next day I added the leftover chickpeas to a salad and topped it off with some AWESOME Goddess dressing. I've seen Goddess dressing all over the blog world for a year now, and I just finally bought some the other day. Why do I wait so long to try things.....ugh I have really been missing out by not having Goddess dressing!

We went to Tony's parents house for lunch on Sunday for soup and chili. She made some vegetable soup just for me. :o) She sent some home with me, so I added some kale to the leftovers for supper that night. It had all kind of veggies in it. Very Very good! And, I have no idea why the picture ended up posting turned the wrong way.

I hope everyone is having a good week!

~Peace~

Just Food.....

2011-11-10T13:01:00.000-06:00

Today's post consist of a few things that I've been eating this past week. First up is a new restaurant that we went to Tuesday night. A Cheddars opened up here in Jackson a few months ago, and Tony has been dying to go. Every time we go by there it's packed with like an hour or more wait. We decided to go out to eat Tuesday night instead of cooking, so we thought we would try to get in at Cheddars. It was our lucky night. We walked right in with no wait. I was a little disappointed at first, because I didn't see much that I could eat. I really didn't want to eat just a salad, and I saw a Dijon Chicken Mushroom meal that I thought I could get, but ask them for more mushrooms in place of the chicken. I asked the waitress if I could do that, but she recommended that I just get the salad and 4 vegetables deal for $6.99. Mushrooms were not one of their vegetable sides, but she said I could order them any way. So, I ended up getting a salad and veggie plate. The salad was a perfect size and had lots of veggies in it. Sorry, I devoured it before I even thought about taking a picture. I did manage to take a picture of my vegetable plate though. The mushrooms were fantastic. I don't know what seasoning they used to cook them in, but I've never eaten any out that tasted that good. The rice was great, the steamed broccoli was steamed perfectly, and the baby carrots were cooked perfect also. I could handle eating that meal every day. :o)

Sunday night we had chili dogs. I tried to find a can of veggie chili at my local grocery store, but all they had was chili with out beans (ugh). I didn't have time to really make a pot of chili, so I just winged it in making a small pot for our hot dogs. I used a can of chili beans, a small can of tomato sauce, half of an onion (chopped), 1 Roma tomato chopped up (that's all I had), chili powder, and pepper. I whipped that up in like 15 minutes, and figured that it probably wouldn't be very edible. Tony had already decided that he was just having hot dogs until he saw what the chili looked like. I did a quick taste test to make sure that it wasn't horrible, and to my surprise it turned out pretty darn good for something just thrown together. :o)

Monday night Tony grilled. I had grilled BBQ Tofu, grilled asparagus, roasted brussel sprouts, and a sweet potato. This was my first time to cook roasted brussel sprouts. For some reason I've never big on roasting veggies. I almost burned the little brussels, but they were still very good. I think I'm beginning to get hooked on roasted veggies.

For most of my lunches this week I've been having a small side of the chili that was left over from our chili dogs, stuffed grape leaves, carrots or broccoli, hummus, and pretzel chips. The grape leaves are so small so I thought I could eat three along with everything else. Boy was I wrong. I could only eat two, so I had to take one back home for the next day. Those little stuffed grape leaves are very filling and very good! Makes me think that their may be more frequent trips to Whole Foods, or maybe I should find a recipe for them and make my own....hmmmm

For some snacks I've been having a Honey Crisp apple with crunchy almond butter....YUM!

I also bought a couple of soy yogurts to try when we went to WF's last Friday. I don't like the kind they sell at our local Kroger. It's not very tasty at all. The Whole Soy & Co was on sale, so I bought those this time. I really wanted to try some SO Delicious Coconut milk yogurt, but it wasn't on sale. I knew my husband was probably going to have a heart attack when we checked out, so I thought I better stop putting stuff in the buggy. It's very easy to get drawn into everything, and to want to buy it right then...at least it is for me. I'm sure it would be different if we had a WF's where I live. I would really love to go to Nashville, which is two hours away, and go to Trader Joe's sometime. Which do you like the best....Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. Do you think it would be worth the drive to go check out TJ's?

~Peace~

A Little Food Feud Action

2011-11-08T09:36:00.000-06:00

Happy ~~Monday~~ Tuesday (I started my post on Monday, but didn't get to finish...CRAZY day yesterday)! I took full advantage of the extra hour that daylight savings time gave us Sunday by doing a little baking. First let me tell you where one of the fabulous recipes that I made came from. It came from one of FoodFued's zines called Marmalade Umlaut. I have to say a a couple of things about her zines before I go into the food. I bought 5 a while back and they are great. Maud is a so funny. You can't help but laugh out loud and some of the things she says and talks about. Then there is the serious side of Maud giving up some of her great knowledge and wonderful recipes. There are a lot of recipes that I plan on making from her zines soon, but what I made Sunday was at the top of the list! If you haven't checked out Maud's zines, you really should! :o) I'm waiting patiently for the new to come out....

I made the Pumpkin Pie Brownies from Issue 9. I've been wanting and meaning to make these for the last couple of weeks, but just couldn't seem to find the time. I'm glad I finally took the time, because they are awesome. They have a rich brownie layer on the bottom and a creamy pumpkin layer on top. I was going to be fancy and grate some dark chocolate to put on top instead of chocolate chips, but that didn't work out very well. Since the chocolate slivers didn't work, I melted the chocolate, so I could drizzle it over the top. That didn't turn out how I wanted it to either, but the taste is what mattered the most here. Here's an example of Maud' humor. She made a note beside the recipe saying " I made this. Oh, and ruined it....sorry". Then she wrote "Better luck to the rest of you, and do NOT sub a 7" pan for the 9" one...." I couldn't help but giggle when I read that.

I also made HH's glazed pumpkin biscuits Sunday morning. I added some cranberries to mine. Cranberries just seem to pare well with pumpkin for me. I thought I got the recipe off her website, but I didn't see it there. I was going to post the link, but I can't seem to find it now....sorry. They were good and pretty low in calories. I'm not counting but someone else is. :o)

I was off work Friday, and as most of you know we took a road trip to whole foods, so I could get some things that I was out of and of course get new things. We left the house around noon, so by the time we got to Memphis we both were about to starve. I suggested we go to P.F. Chang's, because we don't have one in Jackson. I've only been wanting to try it for what seems like forever. For starters we got a couple of veggie spring rolls (yum).

For my main meal I ordered the Coconut Curry Vegetables, which was Stir-fried vegetables, crispy silken tofu and peanuts in a mild curry powder and coconut milk sauce...very good. I no longer have to be jealous of Shen's P.F. Chang's meals, because I have now tried it and know that I like it... and, I will go back. :o) Well, I say I won't be jealous...It could be worse now that I've actually tried and liked it! Thanks for posting those delicious meals Shen!

Here's one shot of some Whole Food's loot that I got. I know it's nothing new for you guys, but for me it was like hitting winning the lottery. The mint candy bar and B-12 are for Tony. I finally decided to buy a can of Artichoke Hearts. Now I need some help in finding the perfect recipe for them. Any suggestions on a recipe for a person who's never tried them before?

Here's some more goodies that I finally remembered to get and some new things that I found that I just had to try. I finally found Honey Crisp apples...yay...and they are so good! Tony found the soy pudding (I totally over looked it), so I had to get that to try, you know, since he pointed it out. :o) I also found the stuffed grape leaves that VaVa and Shen have been eating. Thanks for telling me where they were Shen. And I FINALLY found Miso....thank goodness!

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday that we decided to get out and ride around. We ended up stopping by Tony's sisters farm for a little donkey love. Her name is Bashful. She used to be bashful, but she's not anymore. She is such a sweet heart!

She is so loving....I really wanted to take her home with me!

She loved on Tony a lot more...I think she thought his cologne smelt good. :o)

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

~Peace~

Butternut Squash Soup

2011-11-04T09:54:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday! I'm off work today, so I'm doing the happy dance. :o) It's my last 3 day weekend of the year with the exception of the Holidays....boo. I could easily get used to working a 4 day week! Last night Maggie and I had the house to ourselves which felt strange! Tony went to Rum Boogie that's located on Beale Street in Memphis. Some friends of his were playing in a Blues competition there last night night, so he went along to give them some support, and they won! I probably would have starved if I had of been there, because I don't think it was a veg friendly place...ha I'm glad he went though because it has given him a the incentive to buckle down and start playing his guitar more.....yay.

Anyway...on to the Butternut Squash soup! I went by a recipe that I found here at Chow Vegan. I looked at a few different recipes on the internet, and this one sounded like the one that I would like the best. Now, I have to tell you something and don't laugh. This was my first time to make and to try butternut squash soup...yes I know, I have lived under a rock most of my life....ha I can't believe that it took me this long to even try it. I guess because it always reminded me of baby food. I never though that something pureed like that could be so good. Oh, was I ever wrong. This is the best stuff! The only bad part about it is peeling and cutting that darn little squash. I did have to make a few changes to the soup, because I didn't have or want a couple of things in it. I used 1 cup of vegetable broth and 1 cup of water in place of her two cups of water and vegetable bouillon cube. I also used garam masala in the place of the cayenne pepper. Oh, and I also put a dash of cinnamon in it. I also didn't top mine off with the green onions. I did however top it off with the tofu croutons, which was great! This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Maggie didn't like the idea that her daddy was gone last night. She usually sits between us on the couch every night and she doesn't like it when her routine gets messed up. She kept giving me this look last night as if she was asking, "Is he here yet"...lol People can't tell me that animals don't have souls and that they don't have feelings, because they do! Don't you think?

Since I'm off work today, I'm gong to be heading to Whole Foods in Memphis....YAY! I hope I don't forget anything this time. :o) I hope everyone has a great Friday and weekend!

~Peace~

Bean Burgers and Breaded Zucchini Sticks

2011-11-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday! Last night for supper I made Melomeals 3 Ingredient Bean Burgers and HH's Breaded Zucchini Sticks. Melody's bean burger recipe can be found here. These are some great tasting burgers to make when you are in a hurry and don't have the time to chop up lots of veggies. For the beans, I used a can of kidney beans and a can of vegetarian beans. Lindsay's recipe for the Breaded Zucchini Sticks can be found here. These were so good! Way better than the deep fried version that I usually make. Instead of making my own bread crumbs, I used some store bought whole wheat ones that I had in the pantry. Also, her recipe says to cook them for 15-20 minutes, which may be great for most people, but we didn't feel like they were done enough for us. I ended up cooking them for 30 plus minutes and then turning on the broiler to slightly brown the top. I could have made my meal off the these alone!

Those pickles you see on my plate are some of my homemade pickles. :o) My mom (my food critic) said they tasted good, but they weren't crispy like they were supposed to be (eyes rolling). I knew they probably wouldn't be crispy from most of the reviews that I read before I made them, but hey....at least she said they tasted good...right? :o) Most of the foods that I like, she doesn't like now. She says I make things too spicy for her. It's funny how things have changed since I've become a vegan. I like all kinds of things now and love trying new foods. I find that my mom only eats a few select foods, and isn't so gung ho on trying new things. I guess you could say that she is set in her ways at the age of 82. It's funny how the roles have gotten reversed trough the years. I never wanted to try anything new when I was a kid. I only liked certain things and that was it, but she would always try to get me to try them....sorta like I do her now. ;)

Kroger had there Larabar's on sale this past week buy 10 for $10. Well, you know I had to take advantage of that, so I bought 10. I searched for the blueberry muffin flavor, but it wasn't to be found, but I did come across this pecan pie bar. I used to love pecan pie in my pre veg days, so I was pretty excited to try it. When you open it, it smells exactly like a pecan pie. I don't know that it really taste like pecan pie, but it's very good.

~Peace~

Pancakes and Tempeh Orzilla

2011-11-01T13:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! Sunday morning I made HH's whole wheat pancakes and a strawberry syrup to go on top. These were so good that Tony and I both went back for seconds. I've tried and tried to make good vegan pancakes, but they always come out too dense or too dry. These were perfect, at least for my pancake making abilities. I had some strawberry jam in the refrigerator, so I put a couple spoonfuls of that in a microwave safe bowl along with some maple syrup and a little vegan butter. I warmed that up in the microwave for about 30 seconds and mixed it up and then topped the pancakes with it....total yumminess!

Sunday night I was wanting something hot and was going to make some soup, but I came across Isa's Tempeh Orzilla over at Post Punk Kitchen. I just happen to have all the ingredients and I thought this was the perfect recipe to use up the rest of my orzo. The sundried tomatoes and tempeh crumbles made this supper yummy! Of course I liked that it had spinach in it too. For some reason I just love spinach in pasta dishes. I had a lot of leftovers, so this is what I'm having for lunch most of this week.

Yesterday for Halloween we were supposed to bring finger foods to work for a little party. I was having a hard time in deciding what to make, but I knew I wanted it to have to do with pumpkin. I finally decided on Isa's Pumpkin Muffins. It seems that everyone who has tried them has loved them. Tony suggested that I leave out the dried cranberry's though. Most people where I live like plain and simple, so I took his advise. I made half of them plain and I added walnuts in the other half. Everyone at worked loved them and kept on raving about how good they were. My co-workers were even asking for the recipe...woohoo... My boss, who doesn't really like pumpkin, even loved them. I do make a couple of changes to Isa's recipe though. I always use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose, and I only use one cup of sugar. Sometimes I use safflower oil instead of the vegetable oil too.

These were my Halloween treats for yesterday....I LOVE these things. I actually bought a bag for Tony because he loves them. I used to not like them at all, but I was hungry when we bought them, so I ate a couple to curb my hunger craving. I was hooked after the first one. We bought a bag Sunday and can you believe that the bag of chick-o-sticks are almost gone. They are very addictive. :o)

~Peace~

Pizza with Potato Cashew Cheese

2011-10-28T08:15:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday! Wow, this week has flown by! This is going to be a pretty short post, because I have to get to work. I wanted to tell you about the Potato Cashew Cheese that I made the other night though. I got the recipe from Zombie Cats Eating Plants. Her recipe can be found here. Amber really out did herself with this recipe by combining potatoes, cashews, nutritional yeast, and some spices for a delicious cheese sauce. As you can see in the picture below it is so creamy. I used half a cup of nutritional yeast in mine, because I wanted it to be cheesier tasting. I was wishing I had some tortilla chips to dig into the cheese while I was waiting for my pizza to cook. My husband thought it was weird to be making cheese out of a potato, but after I was finished, he admitted how good it looked. He still opted for the real thing on his half of the pizza though. For better pictures of the cheese and some great looking pizza's check out Amber's blog.

Here's the pizza right out of the oven. Roma tomatoes and mushrooms were my choice of toppings this time. I sprinkled a little dried basil, salt, and pepper and then drizzled a little olive oil on top before it went into the oven.

Doesn't the cheese look like real mozzarella melted?

The first part of the week, I had breakfast for supper. I made scrambled tofu. I used Happy Herbivores recipe, but instead of taking the time to chop veggies up, I used a bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower. I also threw in a few chopped carrots that I had left over from lunch. It was delicious. I had fried potatoes and biscuits with homemade muscadine jelly to go with it. Muscadine jelly is my absolute favorite jelly. What's your favorite kind of jelly?

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I plan on doing some baking that I didn't get to do last weekend! :o)

~Peace~

Green Smoothie, Bok Choy, and Grilled Portabello Steaks

2011-10-25T14:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday everyone! Wow, I just realized that's it's been several days since I blogged. I had some baking plans for over the weekend, but once again my weekend didn't go as I had planned. Hopefully I'll get to do a little baking one night this week, because I'm past due on blogging about something that I've really enjoyed. :o) Hopefully that will appear in my blog in the next couple of days.

Okay, moving into some food. Yesterday morning and this morning I had this green smoothie. I've been smoothie deprived over the last couple of weeks, so I'm sure I will be having all kinds of smoothies this week. Right now I'm feeling the green ones though. :o) This smoothie was made up of a cup of almond milk, and hand full of fresh spinach, 3 tablespoons of hemp seeds, 1 teaspoon of flax seeds, a dash of cinnamon, a frozen banana, and frozen mango chunks (about a cup). You may or may not need to add a little more liquid. Sometimes mine is to thick to blend, so I end up having to add a little more milk or water. And, because I have an inexpensive blender, I always blend my greens, liquid, and seeds first. After that's all smooth, I add the frozen fruit and blend until it's all creamy. :o)

We went to the Farmers Market Saturday and I found some bok choy...woohoo. So, last night we had steamed bok choy with an awesome ginger vinaigrette to go on top of it.. I used this recipe to make the ginger vinaigrette. The only change that I made was that I used agave nectar instead of sugar, and I added some sesame seeds on top. It was delicious! I found some Smart Strips (chick'n style strips) at Kroger the other day when I went grocery shopping, so I sauteed them with some bell peppers and carrots to go along with the bok choy...a perfect combo!

Sunday was an absolute beautiful day, so we grilled out for supper. I had a grilled portabello mushroom, grilled asparagus, a sweet potato, and some fresh french bread that we picked up at the farmers market. Now this is my kind of dinner. I marinated the mushrooms in a red wine, garlic and onion powder mixture for about an hour before Tony grilled them. I think these are my fav so far. I tossed the asparagus in a little olive oil and then sprinkled some herbamare on them before they went on the grill.....YUM!

I had a portabello left over, so yesterday for lunch I had a couple of small grilled protabello sammies. I wanted to make Maud and G's sammy, but I didn't have all the stuff. I spread a little cashew potato cheeze (more on that in the next day or two) on some French bread , added some Russian Kale (my first time find at the farmers market), and then some portabello. These two little sammies were perfect for my lunch! I still want to make Maud and G's though! Oh yeah, I also had some sesame sticks to go with them. I got those from the farmers market too. I scored big at our little farmers market this past weekend. :o)

I hope everyone's having a great week so far!

~Peace~

Liebster Award and Good Eats

2011-10-18T15:04:00.000-05:00

First I want to thank Cassie over at Vegan Fox In The Snow for giving me the Liebster Award. Thank you so much Cassie....you're so sweet! I had no idea what Liebster meant, so I'm glad that Cassie explained the meaning behind this award. "Liebster" is German for 'dearest' or 'beloved' but it can also mean 'favorite'. The idea behind this award is to bring attention to blogs with fewer than 200 followers and show some support.

Here are the rules for winning this award.

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

2. Reveal 5 of your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Post the award on your blog.

4. Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the www!

This is very hard to only pick 5 bloggers, because I love all the blogs that I read, so I'm going to pick the newest ones that I've started following.

Veggie Burgher

Almost Skinny Vegan Food

This is What I Eat

A Diary of an Animal Lover

Zombie Cats Eating Plants

These are all great blogs, so if you haven't already, go check them out....you will NOT be disappointed!

Sunday morning I made HH's cinnamon rolls. They were just okay. I know, my first HH recipe that I don't love, but that could be due to the baker and not the recipe. After I put the cinnamon rolls in the oven, I noticed that my yeast had expired....oops! They didn't rise, and they were a little on the dry side. As soon as I get some fresh yeast, I think I'll give them another try. I can't imagine these not being good.....

Sunday night I made Veganomicon's Scalloped potatoes. I told Tony what I was cooking for supper and he asked can't you just make them from a box? Oh my...I told him these would be way better and to just wait. Score... again.... for the vegans....he agreed that they were very good. This was actually my first try at making any type of scalloped potatoes from scratch. I have no idea what in the world took me so long to to try it. People, forget the boxed stuff! These are way better and will not disappoint! I can't wait to make these for a family get together. No one will ever believe that they are vegan!

I also made Vecon's Chickpea Cutlets...always delish! I topped them off with some good ole Country Bob's. And last, but not least, I had some good ole black eyed peas to round my meal off. :o) I actually ended up adding some Country Bob's to the black eyed peas too....man was that ever tasty!

While I was on vacation I tried several things that I got in my care package from Hally. One of my favorites was this Candy bar. If you've never had one and you used to like a Snickers, then you will love the Jokerz candy bar. I don't have these where I live, but you can bet that I'm about to figure out where I can order them from. I also had the Buccaneer which taste exactly like a Milky Way....YUM! I didn't realize how much I missed eating candy bars. :o)

Just looking at this picture makes me want another one...bad!

What's your favorite vegan candy bar?

~Peace~

Back from Vacation

2011-10-16T10:25:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone...I'm back from vacation. We took a family vacation to Okaloosa Island , FL which is actually considered to be part of Ft Walton with Destin on the other side. It is such a beautiful place! When I say family vacation that means that Maggie went with us...YAY! Her first trip ever. I wasn't sure how she would take the ride there, since the longest she has ever been in a car is about an hour and a half. This was a 9 hour trip, but we just couldn't leave our 13 year old baby behind this time. Here she is just relaxing on her bed with all the luggage behind her, and let me tell you....she did GREAT! Tony laid his back seats down and we made her a bed right behind us, but in between us. I wasn't sure how she would like that either, because she has always been in the front seat with me. Maggie was a trooper though!

Bathroom and water pit stop. :o)

Our pet friendly condo was right on the beach with a sand dune behind it. We were on the 2nd floor with a perfect view. Out side to the right of our condo was a little grass area for the dogs to use the bathroom, and this lead right up to the sand dunes. On our first morning I took Maggie up and let her sit on the sand dune to view the ocean. She loved it!!! I think she could have sat there all day.

Every morning we sat on the balcony and watched dolphins play while drinking our coffee or tea. One morning this man was out paddle boarding with the dolphins. I will do this some day! I love...love...love dolphins! I was so glad that we got to watch them play every morning. This was the first time that I've ever seen dolphins like this while at the beach, and we go to the beach almost every year if at all possible.

One morning we decided to take Maggie out to see the ocean even though there was a BIG sign that said "No dogs allowed on the beach". Since Maggie is crippled in her back end, I didn't really see what the harm would be in taking her out to sit on the beach by the water. It's not like she can take off and run all over the beach. I do wish she could have though. If she was able to run, she would have been all over that place. She loves the ocean to. She would just sit there and sniff in the air and look out at all the water. I'm sure she was wondering what it was. :o) Maggie was NOT a very happy camper when she had to go back in.

Maggie hated being inside the condo. She wanted to be outside. We would come and go a lot, so she wouldn't be alone for a long period of time. We hated to leave her inside like that. When we were at the condo and weren't at the beach, this is where Maggie was....on the balcony. We even had to make her some shade. :o) When we would go inside, she would start crying like a child that wasn't getting there way...ha

Snoozing on the balcony...now this is what vacation is all about!

Yes, there were some chilly nights on the beach. We had Maggie with us here, but couldn't seem to get her in the picture with us. You can see the top of her head though.

Okay, onto some food. I searched and searched for a vegan restaurant, but never found one. So, I had to make do and actually had some great meals. Of course there were a few not so great meals...as always. One of my favorites was the gnocchi that we got at this little Italian restaurant...OMG...it was sooooo good.

This was actually the first time I had gnocchi, and it for sure won't be the last. I will be trying my hand at making some of these very soon. Tony got some kind of ravioli that he said was awesome and was the best that he had every had.

One night we went to the Hogs Breath Saloon. To my surprise they had a fantastic sounding salad. We started off with an appetizer of fried mushrooms that were the best that I've ever had. And can you believe that I didn't even get a picture of them.... I did take a picture of my salad though. I got the Calypso Salad which was a fresh green salad with mango cilantro salsa tossed with an Asian peanut dressing. Wow, this was the best salad that I've ever had out. The combination of the salsa and the dressing was out of this world!

Tony was wanting some seafood (I know....), so we went to the Shrimp Basket. I saw on line where they had a veggie plate, so I was pretty exited about going. As you can see, they loaded me up with veggies. The potatoes did have butter on them, so I took them back for Maggie to eat, which she appreciated very much. Other than that, the veggies hit the spot!

View from our balcony...

One day we were on our way back to the condo from Destin and this is what we saw. :o) I guess you could say this if Florida fishing....lol A chair on a surf board...now this man knows how to fish!

Beautiful sunset on our last night.

Maggie's view of a sunset from the balcony (her 2nd favorite spot).

On our last night we went to a Mexican restaurant called Tijuana Flats. Very cool place with a very cool atmosphere. If I wasn't so shy about walking around in front of people taking pictures, I would have taken tons of the walls. I wish we had one of these where we live.

The coolest part about about this place is that the patio is pet friendly. They had a sign up that said "your well behaved pets are welcome on our patio". Darn, we could have taken Maggie to eat with us. Have you ever heard of a restaurant being pet friendly? They even had dog bowls out for our fury kids. :o)

I got a veggie burrito with black beans. Again...the best burrito that I've ever had! They also had some great salsa. It had a sweet taste to it...very yummy!

Maggie saying good bye to the ocean as the sun rises. She so loved the beach! Vacationing with Maggie was a new experience for us. It was great and I hope that we are able to take her back to the beach again.

Us saying good bye to the beach and ocean...boo... I will live at the beach one day! It's my favorite place to be. What is it about the beach and ocean that makes a person feel revived? It was so good for Maggie too. She had life back in her eyes again and actually got around better while she was there
.

I took some more food pictures, but I think I took them with my phone. If they're blog worthy, I'll post them later. I'm sure I have a lot of catching up to do by reading your blogs, so I'll be checking out what everyone has been up to on and off today! Have a great Sunday!

~Peace~

A Pumpkin Kind of Morning and Vegan Care Package Swap

2011-10-09T10:19:00.000-05:00

This morning when I got up I wanted to try out a Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe that I found a while back. I changed the recipe up a bit and it was delish! Here's how I made mine.

3/4 cup almond milk

1 cup brewed coffee

2 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon maple syrup (may need more if you like it sweeter)

Combine milk and spices in a saucepan and bring to a boil on the stove. Remove and pour into a blender and blend until frothy. Pour into a large mug and then add the cup of coffee and stir. I sprinkled a little apple pie spice on top to make it pretty. :o)

Saturday morning I made The Best Pumpkin Muffins from Isa's Vegan with a Vengeance. I swear these are my most favorite muffins. So this morning I had a left over pumpkin muffin and a pumpkin spice latte. YUM!!!!

I was off again Friday, so I took my mom shopping and spent the day with her. When I got home I had box sitting on the kitchen table waiting for me. I tore into it right away. I knew what it was. Look at all these goodies that were in it. This was from the care package swap that Cook Vegan Lover put on. This was my first year to participate in the swap, and it was so much fun! I was matched up with Hally from The Odd Couple Eats. I enjoyed getting to know Hally thru email. It was so ironic that we got paired up. Her husband is an Omni just like mine, and she also became a Vegan after reading The Kind Diet. Okay, on to all the awesome goodies that I got. I got some cinnamon crispies and a cherry chocolate candy bar from One Lucky Duck. I tore into the chocolate yesterday and OMG...it is soooo good! There was a jar of Montmorency Cherry jam and Harissa from Le Pain Quotidien in the box. The funny thing is that I have been wanting to try Harissa for some time, so I am so excited about that. I can't wait to spread that cherry jam on some toast or maybe a bagel with some cream cheese...mmmm She also threw in a Primal Strip, a meatless vegan jerky for my hubby (Texas BBQ flavor). Now how sweet and thoughtful is that. Also in the box were a couple more candy bars (which I am dying to dig into), spicy pumpkin seeds, Funky Monkey pink pineapple crunchies, some wasabi flavor Healthy Seaweed snacks, and for an extra she threw in a bar of soap that she got at a wedding that she went to. Now that's a lot of stuff! We've been so busy that I haven't had time to try much of it yet. As you can see I did manage to try some chocolate. I love my chocolate! :o)

The Harissa and jam

cinnamon crispies, pink pineapple crunchies, and spicy pumpkin seeds

CHOCOLATE!!!! :o)

Tony's Primal Strip that I'm sure he will let me sample.

Some HOT seaweed snacks....very good though!

The bar of soap that I can't wait to try.

I love that I have a new friend in Hally. She lives in NYC and Tony's sister lives in NJ, so I'm hoping that the next time we go to visit his sister that maybe..just maybe Hally and I will be able to meet up. I look forward to keeping in touch with her. As I sad, this was my first vegan swap and it won't be my last!

I won't be around this week, because I am on vacation and I'm outta here. :o) I'm going to take some very needed time away, so I will see guys in a week. :o) Hope everyone has a great week!!!

~Peace~

Morning Mocha Coffee and Customer Service Week Food

2011-10-04T15:37:00.000-05:00

I started my morning off with an iced mocha coffee. This is basically the same one that I made here. The only changes that I made was that I used 1 cup of coffee and 1/2 cup almond milk this time. I also only used 1 frozen banana and added 5 ice cubes. I think I like this version better. More coffee allows for a better morning drink! :o)

About an hour after I got to work I toasted a slice of bread and spread some Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and strawberry jam on it. I used the bread that Tony's sister gave us, which reminds me that I still haven't found out what kind it is. I know this isn't anything special, but what it about cream cheese and jam that just makes for a lot of yumminess? I could eat this every morning.

This week is Customer Service week where I work, so they are catering lunch to us everyday this week. Yesterday was Mexican. We got to order our own personal meal yesterday, so I ordered the Veggie Fajitas. The food came from Los Portales, which isn't one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, but this turned out to be very good. They did put cheese on my beans, but it was easy to scrape off.

Here's a closer look at the veggies.

Today was Chinese day, so they ordered up several main dishes from Peking, which involved meat....yuck and boo! To my surprise though, they let me order my own personal meal....yay! I ordered the Fried Bean Curd (tofu) with chili sauce, which came with Chinese veggies, and was supposed to have come with white rice, but for some reason they didn't send it. That's okay though. I was just happy that they ordered something for me to eat. It was still good without the rice. :o) Everytime I see these mini corn on the cobs, I think of the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks.

I didn't take any pictures of my supper last night, because it was leftover stuffed peppers and meat loaf, which is now gone!

~Peace~

Another 3 Day Weekend Recap

2011-10-03T12:03:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I had another three day weekend and it's still hard to believe that Monday got here so fast. I feel like Maggie in this picture....Huh...Monday already? :-)

Saturday night I made HH's Mock Meatloaf and Brown Gravy. Lucky for me these recipes were on her website, because I still haven't gotten my cookbook back from my co-worker yet. I let a man that I work with borrow the cookbook after him and his wife watched Forks Over Knives. His wife has really been enjoying the cookbook. Tony enjoyed this meal as well. He said this was the first mock meat anything that he had eaten that didn't weird him out...ha I did make a change though. I didn't have any Gimme Lean Hamburger style. All I had was Gimme Lean Sausage style, so I used that in place of the hamburger style. It turned out just as good. I also made some mac and cheese out of the left over nut cheese from our pizza night last Thursday, which turned out very good as well. I used some brown rice pasta this time. This was a first with the brown rice pasta for me, and I liked it. :o) We also had fried okra, and I made some more fried green tomatoes....yum!

Here's a picture of just the "meatloaf" after we had cut into it.

Saturday for lunch I made a "meat loaf" sandwich which was out of this world. Tony's sister gave us some bread that they used to make sandwiches out of at their coffee shop, which they just closed, because they are moving to Cincinnati. I don't know what kind of bread this is, but I will find out. It's fresh like the Ezekiel bread with no preservatives, so we have to keep it in the freezer. I know it has flax seeds in it and it is awesome! I toasted the bread in a skillet with a little Earth Balance Buttery Spread, then added the meat loaf, that I had warmed up in another skillet along with a little gravy. I then toasted it a little more. This was so good! It's strange to think back to when the thought of a meat loaf sandwich grossed me out. I sure don't feel that way anymore!

I was about to forget about my Friday night supper. It was quickie. I had curry veggies and rice. I took a pack of frozen veggies and cooked them as the package stated, then added a cup of coconut milk and a tablespoon of curry powder. I let the mixture sit on very low heat for about 5 minutes then spooned some over the top of Basmati rice. So yummy for such a quick dinner.

Saturday morning I made the Cinnamon Coffee Cake from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Oh boy was this ever so yummy! I had forgoten all about having this cookbook. I was browsing through my book shelf searching for recipes that I thought Tony would enjoy, and there it was. There are so many good looking/sounding recipes in this cookbook that I want to make. You'll be seeing more goodies made from this cookbook....that's for sure.

Saturday we worked in the yard all day trimming shrubs and all that fun stuff. I picked the rest of our peppers out of our garden too. Our pepper plants have really been producing over the last month. There were way more left on the plants than what I thought. Here's our pepper bounty. I did leave a few small ones on the plants, so maybe they will continue to grow before it gets too cold.

Last night I made Quinoa-Stuffed Bell Peppers, since we had so many peppers. I used a recipe from Vegetarian Times that can be found here. These stuffed peppers were way better than the stuffed bell peppers that I made a few months back. I had a lot of the filling left over though, so I put some of it in the freezer. I thought it might make a good soup before long. I hope it freezes well.

That's my recap for the weekend. :o) Again, I had planed on blogging over the weekend and not getting behind on reading your blogs, but that didn't happen. I just couldn't bring myself to get on the computer. I'll be catching up today though and checking out what you're doing for Vegan MOFO.

~Peace~

Major Carb Overload

2011-09-29T18:05:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! Quick post about supper last night. Tony decided he wanted pizza last night, so I whipped up some Cashew and Sunflower Nut Cheese that I saw Jesse make over at The Happy Go Lucky Vegan. Her recipe can be found here. I didn't have the miso paste, so I decided to use tahini in it's place. I'm not sure what it would taste like with the miso, but it was awesome with the tahini. I've made several nut cheeses and this one is by far the best that I've had. OMG....I could have sat down and just ate the cheese all by itself. I see cheese and crackers in my very near future! You need to go check out her pictures of the nut cheese on her blog, because mine doesn't do it justice. I was about to starve last night, so I dug right in and then realized that I needed some pictures, which I took with my phone, so they turned out dark. Here's the cheese after I had put the leftovers in a jar.

I did manage to take a picture of the pizza before I added the toppings. I had some marinara sauce on the pizza crust, so as I was smearing on the cheese, the sauce sorta blended in with the it. Yes, Tony decided he needed the real stuff.

I also made some olive oil and garlic pasta, per Tony's request.

This morning I was about to starve, and my smoothie just wasn't cutting it, so I went the the cafeteria and got some seasoned fried taters and a slice of toast with jelly on it. For lunch I had left over pizza.....major carb overload over the last 24 hours. :o) Hopefully tonight and the weekend will be much healthier.

~Peace~

Portobello Steaks Rock

2011-09-27T13:16:00.000-05:00

Last night's dinner totally rocked! Tony totally loved HH's Portobello Steaks. If you like shrooms, you have got to try these! The recipe can be found here. I did make a couple of changes this time. I didn't have the recipe to make Lindsay's mock beef broth, since I loaned my cookbook out. So, I just used some veggie broth instead. I also used red cooking wine in the place of the mirin, because I didn't have that either. When I answered Tony's question about what was for supper, I wasn't really sure if he would be up for the shrooms or not, but he said he would give it a try. Folks, he gave it a try and loved it. He said "Great Supper". Along with the Portobello steaks we had some organic pinto beans, wild rice, and roasted asparagus. I tossed the asparagus around in a little olive oil and sprinkled some garlic powder and herbamare on them. I then baked them on 400 for about 15-20 minutes. Oh, we also had crescent rolls....for some reason they didn't make the picture.

For breakfast I had some boring oatmeal with soaked goji berries, apples, bananas, a dash of cinnamon, and a sprinkle of brown sugar. I know it looks bland, but it sure was good.

Lunch was a simple salad with a side of PopCorners, that I found over the weekend at T J Max. I was so excited when I saw these. Apparently they have been a big hit, because there were only a few bags left, with a lot of empty shelf space around them. They only had one flavor which was the sea salt. Have you tried the PopCorners yet. They sorta remind of of a thin rice cake. They make for a great little snack.

We're having to work overtime this week, so I have been going into work an hour early. It's weird how exhausting it is to loose that one hour of sleep. One of Maggie's power naps sure would be great right about now. :o)

~Peace~

Recap From My 3 Day Weekend

2011-09-26T15:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. I was off work Friday, so I made the best of my 3 day weekend. I did have full intentions of blogging over the weekend, but that didn't happen. Here's a few good things that I had over the weekend. Thursday night we had baked ziti. I had planned on making Sarah's Baked Ziti, but I didn't want to pull the tofu thing on Tony yet. I ended up leaving out the tofu ricotta and broccoli...this time. :o) Her recipe can be found here. We love pasta, so I knew this would go over well, and it did. I can only imagine how good it would be with the tofu ricotta. Sorry for the dark picture....not too sure why it turned out so dark.

Saturday night we had leftover baked ziti and some fried green tomatoes. Yum..yum..yum! I picked some green tomatoes up at the farmers market, since we don't have any in our garden. I was hoping for a large crop of green Romas like we had last year, but no such luck this time. Maybe next year!

Saturday afternoon I made some juice with my juicer, which I hardly ever use. I'm really trying to change that. Here's what's in it - 2 carrots, 1 apple, 1 pear, 1 kale leaf, 1 tbs lemon juice or 1/2 peeled lemon. This was sooo good!

Sunday morning I had a Peanut Butter Chocolate Coffee smoothie for breakfast. This tasted so much like a milk shake that I almost felt bad about drinking it for breakfast. If I had a blender at work, I'd be having one of these every afternoon. Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup cold brewed coffee
1/2 cup soy milk
1 heaping tbs peanut butter
1 tbs maple syrup
1 scoop Chocolate Amazing Grass
1 to 2 frozen bananas (I used about one and a half)
3 tbs hemp seeds
dash of cinnamon.

Blend all the ingredients in the blender until smooth and creamy. If you don't have any of the Chocolate Amazing Grass, you can always use cocoa in it's place.

This morning I made a similar smoothie, but left out the coffee and used a full cup of soy milk. I also threw in some frozen cherries....delish!

I had to be at work an hour early today, so I didn't have the chance to really fix anything for lunch. I grabbed this bowl of Annie Chun's Miso soup. This is actually the first Miso anything that I've ever had, and I totally loved it. I can't find Miso where I live, but you can bet that I'll be on the hunt for it at Whole Foods the next time I go.

Here's a quick update on Tony's progress at giving veganism a try. He went one full week as a vegan...YAY. We had a dinner at church last night, and he did have some chicken with his meal. I asked him what his take on the whole vegan thing was, and he said that he was sure that he would still eat meat to some extent, but he wasn't sure how often. For now I'll just keep cooking vegan meals for both of us until he tells me otherwise. And, as of Saturday he had lost 4 pounds. I am so proud of him for giving it a try. At least he is more open to trying new and healthier meals now.

~Peace~

Mexican, Almond Cookies, and ILVTOFU

2011-09-21T13:40:00.000-05:00

Happy HUMP day! Last night we had Mexican food for dinner. I made tostadas with re fried beans, Fantastic Foods Taco Filling, lettuce, and tomatoes. I also made some Mexican rice to go along with it. To make the Mexican rice, I mixed in some taco seasoning and several packets of mild taco bell sauce into some cooked brown rice and fried it a bit....very yummy! I was very disappointed as I was went to the frig to get some Daiya cheddar cheese out. When I opened the brand new package it was all molded inside...BLEH! I looked at the expiration date, and it still had 2 weeks left before it expired. Have you ever had that to happen to you before? Since I didn't have any cheese, I just sprinkled some nutritional yeast on top, which turned out to be good. Tony seemed to enjoy his dinner as well. He did use a little "real" cheddar cheese on his....just a little :o)

Last night when I got home from work I made Aimee's Leftover Almond Pulp Cookies, which were fantastic. They aren't sweet at all, and have such a unique taste about them. I love the fact that these are so healthy. I tripled the recipe though, and I did leave out the pistachios, because I didn't have any. I also made the cookies three different ways. I made a few with dried cranberries as Aimee did, a few plain ones, and a few with carob chips in them. You can find her recipe here.

For lunch I had a Chik'n patty sammy on some Ezekiel 4:9 bread with some of my homemade dill pickles and Dijon mustard on it. Along with that I had some whole grain pita chips. Yes, a very boring lunch. I wasn't feeling so hot this morning. For some reason, my stomach has been burning the last few days and it wasn't at it's best this morning, so I decided I might just need a sandwich for lunch. I also only ate a piece of toast and jelly for breakfast along with some stomach ease tea (which tasted nasty)! I made myself drink it though.

I just had to share this license plate with you also. This license plate made it on our local news last night, because the state of TN denied this personalized plate to a woman who lives in Murfreesboro TN. They said it was vulgar....what???? Yeah, their interpretation of the license plate was not to say "I love tofu"....ugh. They even interviewed some people to see what their take was on the personalized plate and the crazy people of TN also thought it was meant to be vulgar (eyes rolling). Anyway, the woman just happens to work for PETA (who totally has her back), so she just might end up with the plate after all...we shall see. Go here if you want to read a little more on it. I just thought it was funny and ridiculous, so I had to share it.

~Peace~

Falafel Was A Success

2011-09-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday! First I want to thank everyone for all the suggestions yesterday! I think I have our meals planned out for us for the rest of the week now thanks to you guys! I can't wait to try some of the recipes out that you suggested! I'll keep you posted as to what Tony thought about his meals. Last night I made Isa's Falafel from Vegan With A Vengeance, left over wild rice (spiced up a bit), and spicy corn stir fry. This meal was a success! Tony ate 4 of the Falafels....ha I'd say he liked it! :o) The corn stir fry was very good too...much better than the chewy corn that we had on Sunday night (bleh). Here's the corn recipe in case you would like to give it a try.

1 bell pepper (any color will do)

1 tablespoon minced jalapeno

2 tablespoons olive oil (I think this would also be good with vegan butter, which I'm going to try next)

2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 cups fresh or frozen corn (thawed)

vege-sal to taste

Heat oil or butter in a skillet, and saute the bell pepper and jalapeno for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add corn and spices and saute for about 5 more minutes, or until the corn is done to your liking.

Last night before I went to bed I put 1/4 cup oat groats in some water to soak over night, and drained them this morning. I chopped us up some fruit (strawberries, kiwi, and banana) for breakfast this morning. When I got to work I mixed the soaked oat groats in with my fruit and added a little homemade almond milk. BTW...I made some more almond milk last night....so yummy! Maud over at FoodFeud has gotten me into the soaked oat groats for breakfast. Hers always looks so good. I didn't even miss my smoothie this morning. :o) Here's the almond milk recipe.

1 cup almonds (soaked for 8 hours, or however long you can soak them. This batch only soaked for 3 hours and the milk turned out great)
6 dates (pits removed)
4-5 cups water (start out with 4, and if the milk is too rich, then add more water)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. I blended mine for about 3 minutes. Pour milk mixture out into a nut bag, held over a bowl, and squeeze all the milk out. You can save the almond pulp to make cookies with, which is what I'm going to do tonight when I get home. If you don't have a nut bag, you can use cheese cloth.

For lunch I made Tony a salad, but apparently he didn't eat it. He just informed me that he had cheese pizza, because they had a sales meeting at work....at least it wasn't meat! I had Falafel wraps and some left over roasted veggies (cold) from Sunday night. I wasn't sure how cold roasted veggies would taste, but it was pretty good!

Tonight will be Mexican. I like what you guys said about keeping it simple and try to make things that Tony's familiar with. Thanks again for all the tips!

~Peace~

Time to Prove Myself....

2011-09-19T14:09:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday everyone! I finally watched Forks Over Knives Saturday night. I really wanted Tony to watch it with me, but wasn't sure if he would or not. Just so happens a man that I work with watched it last week, and it really made him think and realize some things. I was able to share his thoughts with Tony, which in turn got him interested in the movie. He said "WOW" a lot thru the movie. It was so eye opening. I think everyone could benefit from seeing it. The man I work with started questioning me as to what all I ate and how I ate. I talked to him some about it and let him and his wife borrow a few of my cookbooks. He said they were changing the way they ate, but that he wasn't 100% sure if they would leave meat out all together or not, but for now they were....YAY. The best news is that the movie really got Tony's attention, so he has agreed to try the vegan diet for a week. I'm not sure if that's long enough to really be able to tell a difference, but I'll take what I can get. With that being said, I have to prove myself to him this week and show him how good and healthy vegan food is. Wish me luck everyone! This is going to be pretty tough, because he doesn't like a lot of vegetables. He's willing to try them though. :o)

Tony said his diet would start today (Monday), so I wasn't prepared to really cook last night, but he decided he wouldn't eat any meat last night for dinner. I cooked some crowder peas, roasted veggies, wild rice, and fresh corn out of the freezer. This was not one of my best meals, so I begged him to not judge the vegan diet on my meal that I cooked last night. This was actually the first time I roasted veggies, and they didn't turn out so hot. The corn was chewy for some reason, and the crowder peas just didn't taste right either. I've got to really step it up tonight. If any of you have any really good recipes that you think might when him over, please share them with me. :o) I need all the help I can get here. Now that I'm trying to impress him, I can't think of a thing to cook....how crazy is that?

For dessert last night I fixed us a bowl of fresh fruit (bananas, strawberries and kiwi). Thank goodness Tony loves fruit.

This morning I fixed myself a green smoothie. It had a frozen banana, a cup of frozen mixed fruit (peaches, strawberries, mango, and cherries), a date, hemp seeds, one large leaf of kale and a cup of water in it. I made Tony the same thing minus the kale. I talked to him before lunch, and he said the smoothie made him sick....WHAT? How is that even possible? He normally doesn't eat breakfast, so I'm hoping that it just threw his stomach for a loop. Anyway, I know he won't be wanting a smoothie for a while, so looks like I'll be cooking some muffins for him tonight. :(

Last night I chopped us up some veggies for a salad (broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, yummy bell peppers, and cucumbers). This morning I finished throwing our salads together, and sliced an apple up for both of us for our morning or afternoon snack. I threw some nutritional and dulse flakes on mine. My salad hit the spot, I just hope Tony's did as well.

In Forks Over Knives they talk about the Engine 2 Diet. I thought about getting that for Tony. He's also wanting to loose weight and of course get healthier. Does anyone have that book and would you recommend it? I'm going to try my best to not cook any processed foods this week. I want Tony to get the full affect of a plant based and whole food diet. So, if any of you have any suggestions that could help me make this transition for Tony easier, please share. :o) I'm hoping to win him over. He may not totally rule out meat, but maybe he will want to eat less of it at least.

~Peace~

HH's Portobello Steaks

2011-09-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!!! I started my morning off with some more pumpkin oatmeal. I used regular oats this time instead of steel cut. I also added a little ginger and some goji berries, which seem to have disappeared in the picture. Oh wait there's a little gojo in the middle. Oatmeal has hit the spot the last couple of mornings since it's been cooler. I am however missing my smoothies... I feel like I'm having withdrawals. :o) I have to work tomorrow, so I guess I'll be braving the cooler weather with a green smoothie. I have a feeling that I'll still be drinking smoothies this winter. Or, maybe I should just start juicing more....hmmmmm Anyway, for a mid morning snack I had a banana with peanutbutter spread on it.

The cookies that I made to take to the party last night were a very BIG hit. Everyone raved about them and couldn't believe that they didn't have eggs or butter in them. I not only saw everyone eat a cookie, most of them ate two! WOOHOO..... About last night...I have a question. What do you do if you are going to a party and you know for fact that there's not going to be anything there that you can eat? Do you eat first or take your own food to eat? I couldn't decide what to do last night, but finally decided to take my own food, since it was actually a dinner party. I made HH's Portobello Mushroom Steaks, which were sooo good. I used baby bellas though instead of the large ones. I took some brown rice to go with them. I didn't have time to make anything else, and I had actually made the bella steaks Wednesday night...just in case. Everyone was eyeballing my supper last night and telling me how good it looked. I think they were wishing that they had it instead of their BBQ! They were secretly jealous, at least I like to think that anyway. I had the leftover portobello steaks for lunch today. I did take a picture of them this morning....upside down...oops

I didn't have time to make my own salad this morning, so I bought one at work and added the baby bellas to it. The mushrooms were so juicy that I didn't have to use any type of dressing, which was very nice for a change. I added a little nooch and dulse flakes too.

We have another party (birthday) to go to tonight. The host questioned Tony as to what I could and couldn't eat. Tony told them not to worry about it, that I could handle it. So, I'm on the fence again trying to decide whether I need to take my own food or wing it and hope that there will be something there that I can eat. This is the only time that being a vegan is tough for me, but I guess it is what it is. I don't want people to go out of there way to accommodate me. At the same time, I feel awkward if I take my own food. Is being a vegan ever hard for you when it comes to things like this?

I hope you have a great weekend!

~Peace~

On The Right Track...

2011-09-15T13:25:00.000-05:00

Today's food may seem boring to some, but it was great to me. I'm trying my best to eat less processed foods and to not eat as much bread and pasta. Bread and pasta are a serious weakness for me, but I'm gonna and can do this! With that being said, last night I had lettuce wraps...well, sorta. I ended up putting way too much stuff on the leafy lettuce, so I had to cut them in half and eat them like a taco. It was still a little messy, but was definitely the way to go. This was so good and refreshing. I didn't feel all bloated and yucky after supper like I do when I load up on cabs. The first thing I put on the leafy lettuce was red pepper hummus, then shredded carrots, broccoli, cauliflower (I'm trying to like it...so far so good), yummy bell peppers, and chopped tomatoes.

After supper I made some of Alicia Silverstone's Oatmeal, Walnut and Dried Plum Cookies. We have a get together to go to tonight, and I was asked to bring my famous vegan cookies. You would think that I would know this recipe by heart now as much as I make it, but I don't. I kept noticing that a cookie would disappear every so often. I was in the kitchen for a while making these and a few other things, so I wasn't paying that much attention to the cookies cooling. It appears that Tony was sneaking in behind me stealing cookies. I made a double batch of them though, because I was suspicious that this might happen.....I knew they were his favorite. Oh and I did eat one myself....shhhhhh :o)

No smoothie this morning. I was running short on time, so I just threw some stuff together for some pumpkin oat meal. I used steel cut oats, almond milk, canned pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, chia seeds, and a little maple syrup. I mixed all this together in a bowl and threw it in my lunch bag, with a lid on it. After about 2 hours I nuked it in the microwave. Turned out pretty darn good for something just thrown together, as I was running around crazy trying not to be late for work. I also had a Gala apple for my mid morning snack. It was just plain Jane....no almond butter today. :o)

Lunch was a salad. It had everything on it that my lettuce wraps from last night had. I added some nooch though. What could that be that I'm reading while eating my salad? Maud, do you know??? :o) More to come on that in a few days.....

~Peace~

Catching Up.....

2011-09-14T13:26:00.000-05:00

Happy Hump day! I'm playing catch up today on blogging, since I've been so busy the past few days. I'll start off with my green smoothie that I had this morning. The past two mornings I just had regular fruit smoothies with a scoop of Amazing Grass added in, since I was out of greens. I had to run by the grocery store yesterday after work to get my mom some groceries, so I grabbed a few things for my self and kale just happened to be one of those things. What kind of greens do you prefer in your smoothies? I've been swapping back and forth between kale and spinach, and I'm leaning towards kale as being my fav. This was one of my typical green smoothies with water, kale, a date, a small frozen banana, a dash of cinnamon and ginger, frozen mango chunks, and hemp seeds.....total yumminess!

We ran some errands over the weekend and I came across this great little snack. These little granola clusters didn't last long at all. Tony and I scarfed them down....very good. I've got to go get some more of these! The brand is Mrs Mays. Have you ever tried any of these snacks? I hope they have a bigger variety when I go back to get more!

Sunday night I made HH's Mexican Cabbage. I had brown rice to go with it. Very..very good! The recipe just happens to be on her website. You can find it here.

For lunch one day I had a humms and tomato sammy with a side of baby carrots for some crunch. :o)

Monday night we had spaghetti and a salad. I put some Dulse Flakes on my salad this time. I bought some when I went to Whole Foods a while back and forgot about them. I love this little seaweed! It's a perfect addition to a salad.

Monday night I made some health bars. I'm tweaking my moms recipe. This has always been my all time favorite thing that she made for me. I would request these for my birthday over chocolate cake (shocker). I haven't gotten the recipe where I want it yet, but when it gets there, I'll be sharing the recipe with you.

For lunch today I had a Peanut Sesame Noodle Bowl. These were on sale yesterday at Kroger, so I picked up 3 different kinds. This is my first one to try and OMG...delish! Don't laugh but this is actually the first Peanut Sesame anything to try. I've been meaning to make my own, but just haven't done it yet. After having this, I can't wait to make my own.

Here's a picture of it all made up.....yum! Talk about full...I couldn't even eat it all.

For a morning snack this morning I had a Gala apple with Almond butter spread on it with a few cranberries sprinkled on top. It's not the Honey Crisp apples that Sarah's been flaunting around, but I guess they'll have to work. :o) I'm so jealous of her Honey Crisp apples. Tony broke the bad news to me last night that we don't have them where I live....booooo Gala's are our favorite though...they are sweet and crispy too....just how Sarah describes the Honey Crisp.

~Peace~

Giveaway Winnings and More......

2011-09-09T11:35:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!!! When I got home yesterday I had a package sitting on the table that came in the mail. It was some goodies that I won from Sarah over at This Is What I Eat. Her giveaway was for some homemade treats, which I am always happy to receive. Shen over at The Shenandoah Vegan had requested Sarah's Half Baked Truffles, so there was 2 cute containers of those, and 2 cute little boxes of Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles. Sarah also sent a sweet cupcake card along with her fantastic goodies. Shen, thank you so much for requesting those truffles....OMG...I've never had a truffle that good. Sarah, can you please send me some more????? :o) I ate one right away, and thought that I had died and gone to heaven....they were soooo good! I decided to be a sweet wife and let Tony have one. He was blown away that they were vegan....score!! :o) Later after supper I had a cookie, which was also fantastic, but I have to say...those truffles can NOT be beat. After I ate the cookie I had another truffle. :o) I will be making some of the truffles...for sure. Sarah, thank you so much!!! Your goodies rock!

Yesterday for breakfast I decided that I needed to try the Iron Woman Gingerbread Smoothie that Maud over at FoodFeud blogged about the other day. It was soooo good. You've got to try it!

Wednesday night I made nachos with HH's Nacho Cheese Sauce. This is the best homemade cheese sauce that I've had so far, hands down! I couldn't stop eating it. The nachos were so good that I had the same thing for lunch yesterday. My nachos consisted of tortilla chips (of course), black beans, corn, tomatoes, jalapenos, and nacho cheese sauce...total yumminess! I also had some Mexican rice on the side that Tony made.

Last night for supper I made pizza. Surprised? You know I have to eat pizza at least once a week. :o) I used Whole Wheat Naan bread for the crust. I used some of the left over Nacho Cheese Sauce for my cheese, and added some spinach, pink lady tomatoes, yellow yummy bell peppers, and some black beans. I hesitated about adding the black beans, but I'm glad I added them. Great pizza last night!

For my afternoon snacks this week I've been having a handful of this trail mix that I made up the other day. It has cashews, almond slices, walnuts, carob chips, dried cranberries, and some shredded coconut in it. A handful of the trail mix in the afternoons hits the spot and actually holds me over until supper time. What all do you put in your trail mix?

Maggie had the right idea this morning. She wasn't getting out of her bed for anything...not even to see me off to work. Her little sleeping buddy is Flipper. :o) I really don't see how she can breathe with her nose buried down into her blanket like that, but she does. Anyway....I was jealous of her sleeping in this morning.

Have a great weekend!

~Peace~

Holiday Weekend Recap...Not So Much....

2011-09-07T12:26:00.000-05:00

Hello!..I hope everyone is doing well and had a great holiday weekend. I was pretty bad as far as eating over the holiday weekend. I did a lot of eating out and ate a lot of processed foods. By the time Monday afternoon rolled around, I was feeling a little bluh. We did grill Monday night though. Have you ever grilled Boca Chik'n patties? I decided to give it a try Monday night, the outcome was great. I had a grilled Boca Chik'n Pattie, fried okra (the only way I eat okra), a baked potato with some nutritional yeast on top, a couple of jalapeno poppers, and a roasted yummy bell pepper.

Tuesday Morning I had a smoothie made out of soy milk, a frozen banana, frozen strawberries, and scoop of chocolate amazing grass. I was running short on time, so my smoothie had to be a quick fix.

For my mid morning snack on Tuesday I had a whole wheat English muffin with "bacon" and a much needed cup of coffee. Seeing everyone else blog about their English muffins made me want one. :o)

Yesterday for lunch I had a salad with a left over grilled Boca Chick'n Pattie. I didn't have time to whip up dressing for my salad, so I thought that I would just get some at work. I totally forgot about the cafeteria being closed yesterday. I happen to remember that I brought an orange, so I sliced it open and squeezed the juice over my salad. To my amazement it was delicious! Shen, I think you asked me if our cafeteria had a salad bar, and I don't remember if I answered you or not....sorry! They don't have a salad bar, but they make salads every day and put them into plastic containers. All of their salads have meat and cheese on them though. There's a very sweet lady that works in the cafeteria that will make a salad just for me when I want one. I just tell her in advance in the morning time that I would like a salad, which I think is super sweet!

Last night for supper I had made some succotash (my own way) I actually had a can of succotash, so I dumped the contents into a colander and rinsed it (yes, rinsed all the spices right off). It was mostly tomatoes with a very few butter beans and corn, so I added some frozen corn, edamame, and some cabbage to it. I added some spices such as salt, pepper, cumin, and graram marsala...mmmm. I put the succotash over some brown rice and topped that with nutritional yeast. This was another successful and quick dinner. :o) Leftovers are for lunch today!

For breakfast this morning I had oatmeal made with steel cut oats. I added a little molasses, goji berries (much better used in oatmeal than eaten dry), sliced almonds, and a dash of cinnamon. I then poured a little almond milk over it. It was too cold (55 degrees) this morning for a smoothie....brrrrrr I'm not complaining though. I had much rather have this cooler weather than the 95 plus temps.

Now that I'm all caught up on my foods from the last couple of days, I should be back to my normal blogging tomorrow with not as many processed foods....hopefully.

~Peace~

Veggie Pasta and Soooo Ready for the Long Weekend!

2011-09-02T12:33:00.000-05:00

Happy FRIDAY!!! I am so glad the weekend is near, and so glad I have 3 days off work. Do you have big plans for the long weekend? We'll be staying home and hopefully painting/redecorating our home office. I'll have to take a before and after picture for you and post that on Tuesday. I doubt I'll be doing much if any blogging over the holiday weekend, so that's why I say I'll post it on Tuesday. :o)

Yesterday was Maggie's "Spa Day" at the vet. As you can tell in this picture, she was not very happy to be getting dropped off. I do believe she was saying "Mom, do you really have to take my picture, and PLEASE don't leave me here!" Poor baby! After I picked her up from the vet yesterday, I took her to the chiro to see what he could do to help her to walk better. She hasn't been in a while, and she hasn't been getting around so well lately. She had a big hump in her back, so I knew something was out of whack. He did some adjusting on her and it seemed to help a little. It was hard to tell at the chiro's office how much it was really going to help, but after we got home she was getting around a lot better. She was only able to walk a few steps before she would fall down in the sitting position. She's able to walk a lot farther now. Chiro's are wonderful...even for pets! And her eye, well it looks great. She looks like she's winking all the time. She has fully adjusted to it being gone now. My baby has such a big heart!

Bananas are back in my house, so I've been able to make my smoothies again. This one was a VERY green smoothie! This one consisted of water, banana, a date, frozen mango, fresh ginger, and a LOT of spinach.

Wednesday night for supper I made some veggie pasta...it totally hit the spot and was very yummy! I used whole wheat pasta, zucchini, spinach, chickpeas, Roma tomatoes, minced garlic, olive oil, and some red wine. I also made Happy Herbivores Corn Cakes to go along with it. They were very good also. They reminded me of the Jiffy corn bread mix. That was the first time that I had ever actually put flour in the mix to make cornbread. I've always just used straight corn meal. They turned out great though.

For 3 nights in a row, our dessert has been chocolate covered strawberries. I love chocolate covered strawberries! I don't know why I don't make them more often. Every night they would get eaten before I got a picture of them. The last night we had them I had just sat on the couch beside Tony with the plate and thought of a picture. We both were ready to dig in, so Tony took the plate and held it under the lamp and snapped a picture of them. This is why the berries are all over the place on the plate. :o)

Have you ever tried any of the Odwalla smoothie drinks. I got this superfood one the other day at Kroger and it was pretty good. Not as good as the Naked though. :o)

I hope everyone has a great and safe Labor Day weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Ratatouille and 2 Days Without A Smoothie.....

2011-08-31T14:21:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! I didn't get the chance to blog yesterday, so I'm posting Monday's supper today. Have you ever made Ratatouille? Well, my first try with it was Monday night, and I thought it turned out pretty tasty. I know there's tons of recipes out there for Ratatouille, and they all seem similar in ways. Here's how I ended up making mine.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water

1 onion, chopped

1 med size eggplant, diced

1 bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 small zucchini, sliced

Peel and dice eggplant. Salt eggplant well and put into a colander to drain for 30 minutes. Rinse the salt of the eggplant and set aside for a bit.

Heat water in a large pot and add onions, bell pepper, and garlic. Cover and cook over medium heat until onions and peppers are soft. About 5 minutes.

Stir in eggplant, tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer, stirring often, until eggplant is tender. About 15 minutes.

Stir in zucchini. Cover and cook until tender. About 5 minutes.

As you see I had more black eyed peas, and some quinoa to go along with my Ratatouille. :o)

Moving onto breakfast. For the last two mornings I've been out of bananas, which I can NOT believe. So, Tuesday morning I had wheat toast with almond butter and plum jelly. This was actually good for a change.

This morning I had some overnight oats with almond butter and Chocolate Amazing Grass. I'm also out of milk, so I had to use water. Well, I got to work this morning and was about to starve, so I tied into my breakfast, but bleh....It was NOT good, at least not to me. So I had to opt for a not so healthy breakfast. I walked down to the cafeteria and got some good ole seasoned taters. They also had some apples, so I bought one. I thought it would be good to offset the bad with some healthy. I hate to say it, but this wasn't even good. I ended up eating half of the potatoes and didn't even eat the apple. I miss my smoothies!!! With that being said there will be a pit stop on my way home to grab nanners and milk! :o) Is it strange to be so hooked on smoothies? Is there anything that you just have to have daily?

Do you ever take something to work for your lunch and as lunch time gets closer you decide that you really don't want what you brought? It's just not sounding good? That was me today. I cooked a couple of Boca burgers last night, so I would have them for lunch over the next couple of days. A Boca burger was supposed to have been my lunch today, but for some reason I was craving hummus. When lunch time rolled around, I ran up the road to Kroger and bought some Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, a Roma tomato, some alfalfa sprouts, and some pita chips. Yep...pictured below is what I ended up with for lunch, plus the pita chips that didn't make it into the picture. I had brought the greens to put on my burger, so it was a perfect fit for the sandwich. The hummus veggie sammy was much better.....It did hit the spot!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Dill Pickles and More

2011-08-29T12:59:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I had some things that I wanted to get done over the weekend and I succeeded...yay! I love it when I get my goals accomplished...don't you? This morning I had my usual smoothie. This one was made with green tea, a date, frozen banana, frozen peaches, and some blueberries. I normally like to add some kale or spinach, but I'm all out. Looks like I'll have to run to the grocery store today after work.

Saturday night I had some black eyed peas (one of my favs), some olive oil garlic pasta, and some Sesame Garlic Tepeh strips. Have you ever bought any of those marinated strips? I think they are by Turtle Island Foods. They were on sale at Whole Foods when I went a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to buy them to try. I thought they were okay, but not my favorite. I doubt I'll buy them again. The strips look like they were put in the spot light on my plate, but I didn't think they were spot light worthy. Apparently the sun did though. :o)

We've been getting tons of bell peppers out of our garden, so I've started freezing some of them. I cut them up into strips then lay them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for a couple of hours. After they are frozen, I then put them into a freezer bag. Have you ever frozen bell peppers like this? I figure they'll at least be good to cook with.

I finally tried my homemade pickles yesterday, and they were yummy! They aren't real crispy, but the taste is perfect. I had told you that if the outcome was good that I'd reference the recipe that I used. So, here's the link to the the recipe.. http://southernfood.about.com/od/picklesrelishes/r/r80820g.htm . The recipe is definitely worth sharing! I'll be making these again next year.

Okay, this next picture is for Molly since she likes Dragonflies. I snapped this picture last week as I was walking to feed the turtles on my break. I knew Dragonflies ate insects, but never would have dreamed that they ate moths. This little guy was chowing down. I know it's kinda gross, but it really was cool to stand there and watch him eat.

That's all for today. I hope everyone on the eat coast is safe! I've had you all in my thoughts and prayers.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

T G I F and PIzza....again

2011-08-26T08:09:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!! I hope everyone is planning on having a relaxing weekend like Maggie's doing here. :o) I'm for sure going to be doing this in the mornings. We're supposed to have cool mornings over this weekend, so I plan on sitting outside and clearing my mind. This is something that we never do. A couple of weeks ago it was a cool morning, and I went out back to check on the garden and ended up staying out there just relaxing for almost 3 hours. It was great....very refreshing!

Last night for supper I made pizza again. It's been a hectic work week, so I just wasn't in the mood to cook a big meal. I had 4 pieces of whole wheat Naan bread, so I used that for our pizza crust. My topping this time was zucchini, cherry tomatoes, little yummy bell peppers, and fresh basil. Total yumminess!

The best part of last night was the dessert pizza I made. OMG..this was AWESOME! I used one of the whole wheat Naans for the crust. I then spread some plum jelly over the bread and put that in the oven for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes was up, I took the crust out and let it cool for about 5 minutes. I then spread some Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese over the jelly and added some blue berries, raspberries, and kiwi. To finish it off I sprinkled some powdered sugar over it. I was so full that I could only eat a few bites. The next time I think I'll just eat dessert pizza. :o) I can't wait to make this again with another kind of jelly and other fruits.

Yesterday for my mid morning snack I had some raspberries and blueberries with a little granola and some homemade almond milk. I don't normally keep raspberries and blueberries at home, but that's about to change. I really enjoyed this yesterday morning.

I have a Peace Lilly on my desk at work, and it's blooming....woohoo! Why do I say woohoo? Because I do NOT have a green thumb when it comes to house plants. I even killed a cactus, so that should tell you enough there. I've been feeding this guy a little green tea and coffee here and there. Apparently it likes the caffeine. I've actually had this plant for about 3 years and it's still alive. I've killed all my house plants that I have (had) at home. So now you see why I'm sharing about my Peace Lilly blooming. :o)

Have a FABULOUS weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

HH Meatballs and Other Stuff

2011-08-23T08:52:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone...Happy Tuesday! I didn't get the chance to post yesterday, because it was a pretty crazy day. That just means more pictures for you today. Last night for dinner I cooked Happy Herbivores meatballs and marinara sauce. Both were excellent! These were some of the best meatballs ever! And, I'm taking that back to way before I became a vegan...they rocked. I decided to use the spices that she used in her meatballs to make Tony his. He said his were excellent too. :o)

Over the weekend I decided to try my hand at making my own almond milk. I used the recipe in my Raw Food Made Easy cookbook, or I guess I should say "non" cookbook. Anyway, it was so good that I made some more last night. I soaked the almonds for 12 hours and then put them in the blender along with some water, dates, and vanilla. After that had blended for a bit, I poured the mixture into my nut bag that I won a while back. Finally I got to use my new nut bag. I squeezed out all the milk until just almond bits were left in the bag. Tony thought that was pretty funny. He told someone that they should have seen me milking the almond utters....anyway, the milk is great! Almonds are so expensive though, so I probably won't be making this all the time.

I soaked some steel cut oats over night and then poured some of my homemade almond milk over them. I also added some banana and dried cranberries. Yes, I poured a little too much milk in my bowl. Sure was good though. This is what I had for my mid morning snack yesterday. I had my usual smoothie first thing in the morning on my way to wok. I think I'm hooked on smoothies like most people are hooked on coffee.

I had half of a Kombucha yesterday. I drank it for my afternoon snack, and thought I was going to drink the entire thing, but I couldn't get it down. It was filling me up. I saved the other half to drink today. I really do like this stuff! I wish I could afford to drink one every day. I've been seeing where some people are making their own. I just wonder how hard that is to do? I need to check into that.

This meal goes back to Thursday night. Tony's mom made stew for everyone. Being the sweet mother-n-law that she is, she made me some with no meat. I went by her house on my way home and picked it up for our dinner. As I was warming it up, I decided to throw in a little kale for some green action! Her stew hit the spot!

Saturday night we decided to cook Mexican instead of going out to eat it. We made Tostadas. Mine had refried beans, some Fantastic Foods Taco Filling, lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, Daiya cheddar cheese, and some tomatillo salsa. I think this might have been the best tostada that I've made so far.

I've been craving kale chips, so Sunday I made some and ate them all by myself. :o) I massaged the kale leaves in some olive oil and then spread them on a cookie sheet in single layer. I then sprinkled a little salt, paprika, and some nutritional yeast on them. I baked them on 300 for about 10- 15 minutes. Total yumminess!

Sunday morning while I was sitting on the porch waiting for Maggie to use the bathroom, I noticed a momma mocking bird sitting on Tony's car with a worm in her mouth. She was really doing some talking too. She seemed to be telling me a few things. It was at that moment I noticed one of the shrubs moving. I thought what in the world....So, I went to check it out with momma bird pitching a fit. I then noticed this little guy. Bless his heart. He was learning to fly. I happened to have my phone with me, so I snapped his pic and then went back to the porch so momma could take care of her baby. I just love watching nature like that!

Question....Does anyone know what kind of flower this is? I think they are so cool looking! I would love to have some of these at my house! I've been seeing these around but never up close. These just happen to be at the retirement home where my mom lives.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Margarita Pizza and Yogi Teas

2011-08-18T15:39:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday. Last night I wasn't feeling that great and neither was Tony, so we had a not so healthy dinner. I had a whole wheat pizza crust left from a Margarita pizza that I made the other night, so I made us another one last night, which was very YUMMY. This has become our favorite pizza. My half had Daiya mozzarella where Tony's half had the real stuff. Our tomatoes are basically gone out of our garden, so I picked up some yellow Roma's and grape tomatoes at the farmers market Saturday morning before we went to Memphis. I used those and some fresh basil from my garden. Tony drizzled a little olive oil over the top and then he sprinkled some garlic powder, salt and pepper on it. You sure can't buy a pizza like this out! It ROCKED!

Ok, this part is for the women readers. Have you ever tried this tea. It's mainly for PMS and that time of the month aches and pains. I ran across this a while back and the reviews were great. People said it really helped their cramps, so I wanted to give it a try. I cramp very bad when it's that time of the month, so I snatched some of this tea up. I have to admit that it really does work. For the last two months my cramps have been barely noticeable. I drink it in the morning and in the evening to help relive the symptoms. This is the best stuff ever. It works where Aleve never did. Anyway, I just wanted to share that since it has helped me so much. :o) Here are the ingredients: Organic Fennel Seed, Organic Ginger Root, Organic Cinnamon Bark, Organic Chamomile Flower, Organic Raspberry Leaf, Organic Anise Seed, Dong Quai Root Extract (Lingustilides 1%), Chaste Tree Berry (Vitex angus-castus) Extract, Juniper Berry Extract, Organic Parsley Leaf.

For breakfast I had a smoothie that wasn't anything special. It consisted of 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup water, 1 frozen banana, 1 tbs peanut butter, 1 date, a scoop of chocolate Amazing Grass, and some hemp seeds. This is something I always drink when I'm craving chocolate, which I was doing this morning. I had a plum and a few cashews for my mid morning snack.

For lunch I had a salad...nothing special here either. Apparently I wasn't really in the mood for another salad, because I only ate half of it. I replaced the other half of my salad with a Larabar. Yes, I've been struggling with my partial raw day today. I have a pear for an afternoon snack, so hopefully that will hold me over until I get supper cooked.

Oh...confession....Last night I ate 4 Oreos after I ate my pizza. I know....that's defeating my whole purpose in eating partially raw. I think tonight will be much better though....at least I hope. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Mung Bean Sprouts

2011-08-17T15:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday! Last night for dinner I had left over BBQ Tofu and one lonely jalapeno popper. I also cooked some fresh butter beans, and some more zucchini, but with onions this time.

Since I normally do most of my posting on my lunch, I'll more than likely be beginning my post with the supper from the night before, then I'll be rolling into my raw foods for the day. :o) So, here we go....for breakfast I had a green smoothie. This one was made up of a frozen banana, frozen mango chunks, 1 date, a hand full of spinach, and a cup of water. I think mango smoothies are my favorite!

Here are some mung bean sprouts that I sprouted over the last couple of days. I bought some mung beans at Whole Foods Saturday, so I could try my hand at sprouting them. I felt like a little kid at Christmas time seeing the little sprouts coming out of the beans. :o) I'll be doing a lot more of my own sprouting. I'm going to try adzuki beans next. What are you favorite bean sprouts and do you sprout your own?

For a mid morning snack I had half a banana with some almond butter on it. For lunch I had a salad with some left over "Tuna Pate" on it along with my bean sprouts, some cherry tomatoes, and carrots. I made some Tahini Lemon Dressing from Raw Food Made Easy last night to use for my dressing today. I have to be honest....it was not my fav. It was to bitter, so I doubt I'll be making it again.

For my mid afternoon snack I'll be having a pear, and hopefully I'll make it till supper time before I starve.

Last night when I got home Ani's Raw Food Kitchen was waiting on me. I ordered it last week from Amazon, and it came in yesterday....woohoo...just in time! I haven't had the chance to look at it yet, but hopefully I'll get to tonight. I hear the book is loaded with great recipes.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Not Tuna Pate' and Grilled BBQ Tofu

2011-08-16T14:33:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone! Happy Tuesday! I've been wanting to incorporate more raw foods into my diet, so I am going to try my hand at eating raw until supper time. I figure I'll eat one cooked meal a day, and I'll do that for supper. I did this a while back for a week and felt great while I was doing it. I'm hoping this will give me more energy and help me to not feel so sluggish all the time. I was going to start my new diet on Monday, but I wasn't really prepared, so today is the day. To keep me on track with the eating raw, I think I'll try something a little different with my posting for a while. I would like to post what I eat for the day. I think this will help me to stay on track better.

Yesterday while I was at work I had some raw sunflower seeds and almonds soaking, so I could make Jennifer Cornbleet's "Not Tuna Pate'" from her Raw Food Made Easy cookbook. I made this once before and thought it was good, but it is way better this time...not sure why. I must have left something out of it the last time I made it. The pate' consist of raw almonds, raw sunflower seeds, water, lemon juice, salt, minced celery, minced onion and some fresh parsley. So, for lunch today I had a "Tuna" wrap with Romaine lettuce, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, and yellow Roma tomatoes (they just happen to be hidden under the pate). Very tasty lunch.

We grilled out last night for supper. Everything we ate was grilled with the exception of the Teriyaki pasta. We had some more jalapeno poppers, zucchini, and Tony grilled me some BBQ Tofu. I've never had grilled tofu, so we both were just praying that the tofu wouldn't fall apart on the grill. To my amazement Tony made it turn out perfect! I pressed the tofu for about 30 min then sliced it into 8 slices, and put some BBQ sauce on it. I used some Sweet Baby Rays that we had already opened in the frig. The BBQ sauce probably stayed on the tofu for about 30 minutes before the tofu actually hit the grill. I think Tony ended up grilling it about 7 minutes on each side. It turned out delicious! Do you ever grill tofu? If so, what's your favorite way to grill it?

Most of you know that I went to Whole Foods on Saturday, since we were in Memphis for Tony's birthday. I went crazy with those bulk bins they have. I stocked up on a lot of stuff! I left sad though. I looked so hard for pretzel rolls and pretzel bread, but they didn't have any. I always see Shens and have been wanting to try it for a long time. Oh well, maybe they will have it the next time.

While we were in Memphis, Tony decided that he wanted to go by the Harley dealership....BIG mistake!! He apparently found his birthday present. Too bad we had to leave it there. I would love for him to be able to get a new bike, so I can be more comfortable. :o) Maybe he'll get to get one soon.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Low-Fat Tahini-Chickpea Dressing

2011-08-11T14:58:00.001-05:00

Hey there! Yesterday on facebook Happy Herbivore posted this sign, that I just love. I need and want this in my house! Anyway, I liked it so much that I wanted to share it with you. :o)

Last night I had a salad that was one of the best salads that I've made in a while. The main reason for me posting about the salad is the dressing that I used on it. Total DELISH! BTW...My pictures are still dark, because I still haven't replaced the light bulbs that blew....maybe I'll get to that sometime this weekend.

SusanV over at Fat Free Vegan posted a recipe for Low-Fat Tahini-Chickpea Dressing the other day, which sounded so good to me. Her recipe can be found here. I've been wanting to try a new and different dressing, and this one seemed to fit the bill. It was soooo creamy. It's nothing like I've ever had before, and that's a very good thing. It was so good that I had to have a redo of last nights salad for lunch today. :o)

Saturday is Tony's birthday. He has decided that he wants to go to Memphis to eat at The Crab Shack. I know.... but that's his favorite place to eat, and after all....it is his birthday. :o) With that being said, this means that I get to go to Whole Foods.....YAY! I have a list going of some things to get, but it seems like I always forget stuff. So, I need your help. What suggestions do you have as to what I should get while I'm there? I'm trying to incorporate more raw foods into my diet as well, so suggestions with raw foods will be appreciated too. Suggestions....please.... :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Smoothie, Quiche, Brownie Balls, and Saturday Pictures

2011-08-09T15:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I did, but it just wasn't long enough. Of course it never is. First up on my food list is Happy Herbivore's Neapolitan Smoothie. The Neapolitan ice cream used to be one of my favorites when I was growing up, so I was really anxious to try Lindsay's smoothie. It was amazing. It taste like the original stuff. Makes for a great frozen dessert.. It's really good for breakfast also. :o) This recipe can be found on her website here.

Sunday night I made HH's Quiche with Greens. I used spinach in mine and I also added some red bell pepper. Another very yummy dish! If you like quiche, this was very good and very easy. I'm all about easy meals. This recipe is also on HH's website and it can be found here. Yes, I am on the HH kick. Everything that I have made from her cookbook has been fantastic and so easy to make. Sorry my food pictures are so dark. We are minus a light bulb or two in our lighting fixture in the kitchen. I keep forgetting to stop and pick light bulbs up.

This is the red pepper that I used in the quiche. It came out of our garden. :o)

Okay, here's something that I made last night that did not come from the HH cookbook. Are you amazed? These are Double Chocolate Brownie Dough Balls and they are delicious. I got the recipe from Oh She Glows, which can be found here. Tony was even amazed at how good they were. These are going to be perfect for that mid afternoon chocolate craving that I get sometimes.

Next up today are some random pictures that I took Saturday on our bike trip to Patti's. This place is known for it's 2 inch pork chop, so you know that I didn't have very much to choose from. Not a vegan friendly place, but they were very willing to help me out. They had a chicken portobello sandwich on their menu, so I asked if I could order that with out the chicken. I figured the lady would think I was crazy, but she said sure and that she has had other people to order like that before because they didn't eat meat....like me...ha It was very good, but they could have put a little more mushroom on there for me, but I didn't complain. I had that and some of their homemade chips...delish! I took a picture of it with my phone, but it was so dark that you couldn't tell what it was....sorry.

Since I love dogs, I just had to take a picture of this sign.

This was the side of one of the gift shops. I thought all the bird houses were so cool.

Here's a close up of one of the bird houses.

I felt so sorry for this Turkey. I so wanted to set him free. Obviously he has been very stressed, because he has pulled out all the feathers on his chest. He looked at us and made some little noises as if he were saying please help me. Just broke my heart!

He/She was napping when we first came upon him. He was standing on one leg with his head buried into his back...so pretty. We woke him up by mistake though...oops

A cute little wedding chapel. Someone was getting married there last year when we went, so we weren't able to go inside.

It was open this time though. :o) It might hold like 20 people, and that would be very crowded!

Two angels were right outside the wedding chapel. A friend of mine took this picture, so I stole it from her off of her facebook page...ha I thought it was so cool.

This was the sail boat harbor right across the street...so pretty! Have you ever been sail boating? I haven't and would love to go.!

We had to make a pit stop on our way to Patti's to put on our rain gear. It came a down pour on us. We rode in the rain for about an hour I guess....it was still fun though.

Yep...ridding with out a helmet. There's not a helmet law in KY. I think we were the only rebels. Everyone else kept their helmets on....probably the smartest thing to do.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Here's Looking at the Weekend....

2011-08-05T14:21:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! See the excitement in Maggie's eye that this is Friday. :o)

Maggie doesn't know that she'll be home by herself most of they day Saturday though. :( We are taking a motorcycle ride with some other couples tomorrow in this terribly hot weather. This was the temp on my way home at 5:30 Thursday...now that's just too darn hot! I hope it's not this hot tomorrow.

So, what do you do when it's so hot out? You cool off with this yummy smoothie that I made with flavored coconut water. This is by far one of my favorite smoothies. I made this one with acai / pomegranate coconut water.

Beat The Heat Smoothie

1 frozen banana
hand full of frozen mango chunks
3 tablespoons hemp seeds
1 11.2 oz container Vita Coco Acai & Pomegranate coconut water

Throw everything into the blender and blend until smooth and creamy. This smoothie didn't last long at all. I think it was gone in 5 minutes. Usually my smoothies last about 30 minutes, because I drink them on the way to work.

This week was the first time that I've tried the flavored coconut waters, and I have to say...I'm lovin em!

Last night for supper we made spaghetti. All the veggies we used came out of our garden except for the mushrooms. I had a few mushrooms left over from making a stir fry the other night, so I threw them into the mix. Fresh tomatoes, roasted peppers (left over from our grilling the other night), and fresh basil....talk about yummy. This was one of the best pasta dishes that I've had in a long time! Of course I did add some red wine, olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper. :o)

Wednesday night we had hot dogs. When I was at Kroger over the weekend I found some Smart Dogs. I was so excited when I saw them. I know that's crazy, but when you live in a place where vegan foods like this are rare to come by, you get excited when you see them. This particular Kroger has added several new vegan products, which is great since I don't get to make the 1 hour trip to Whole Foods very much. Don't laugh when I tell you this, but this was the first time that I've ever put sauerkraut on a hot dog, and it won't be the last. I've never had a hot dog that tasted so good....total deliciousness! Tony sliced some potatoes and made us some french fries, and I made some of Elise's Fry Sauce (thanks to Shen).

I hope you have a great weekend! Everyone try to stay cool.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Maggie and Stuffed Eggplant

2011-08-03T13:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Hump Day everyone! I took a picture of Maggie last night so you could see how her eye is healing up. All the swelling has gone done and it looks much better. She could really use a good face washing, but I'll leave that for the vet to do next week when she goes for a spa day. I don't want to mess with that eye right now. She has adjusted well though. I was really worried at first, but Maggie is back to her normal self now. Of course she still has trouble getting around because of her back, but you would never know that she only has one eye. :o)

After taking about 15 pictures to get the one pictured above, she then turned and gave me this sassy pose as she was watching to see where Tony was going...ha Every time I would try to take her picture she would turn her head the other way as if she is saying "stop it momma". My little girl is camera shy. :o)

The other night I made stuffed eggplant with one of our eggplants out of the garden. I was a little nervous in trying it, but it was delicious! Here's the recipe.

1 med size eggplant
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon oregano
1 cup cooked black beans
salt and pepper to taste
vegan cheese (I used mozzarella)

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Wash the eggplant well, but do not peel.
Cut eggplant in half lengthwise
Scoop out the center, leaving a 1-inch shell.
Dice eggplant pulp and reserve.
Fill a large skillet with ½ inch of water and 1 teaspoon salt.

Place the eggplant shells in the water, skin side up, and bring to a boil.

Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Drain the eggplant shells, and put them on a baking sheet, skin side down.

Heat oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion, green pepper, garlic, and the reserved eggplant until tender.
Add tomato paste, sugar, seasonings, and the cooked black beans.

Simmer uncovered 10 minutes longer.
Fill shells with vegetable mixture and top with grated cheese.

Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Here's my one and only Sunflower. I planted 3 seeds, but this is the only one that grew.

A friend of mine gave me some Marigold seeds to plant. This is not what I remember Marigolds looking like. Have you ever seen Marigolds like this? I love them though...they are so pretty around my patio.

Here's a close up picture of one of the Marigolds.

And last but not least, here is our newest employee where I work....Miss Peacock. She is always at the front door to greet me as I walk in. If the door was left open, she would definitely go inside. No one has any idea where she came from. That's okay though, because she is getting fed well where she is. She'll even eat out of your hand. :o)

That's all for today....have a great rest of the week!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

A Little Bit of Everything......

2011-08-01T14:40:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend and survived the heat. Smoothies are really hitting the spot with me on these hot mornings. This morning I had a green smoothie made with pineapple coconut water, which was delicious!

2 stems of kale (minus the stem)

a dash of cinnamon

a dash of ginger powder

1 cup pineapple coconut water

1/2 frozen banana

a handful frozen mango chunks

2 tablespoons hemp seeds

You know the drill...throw it all in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy....very yummy!

Sunday morning I made Happy Herbivores Apple Crisp Muffins. These muffins are great! They were so moist and and the chunks of apples in the muffins really made them the perfect muffin. In case you don't have Lindsay's cookbook, the recipe can be found here http://happyherbivore.com/recipe/apple-crisp-muffins/ . I really suggest you try these. :o)

Saturday night we decided to grill. Tony grilled eggplant for me, which was out of our garden. While it was on the grill I rubbed some Italian dressing on each side as Tony flipped them...very tasty! We also grilled some asparagus, fresh corn, jalapeno poppers, and even a sweet potato. I did cook the sweet potato half way in the microwave though. I then wrapped it up in some aluminum foil and threw it on the grill. It was awesome! We also roasted some bell peppers on the top rack of the grill. I have a yummy bell pepper in my plate below that we roasted. He didn't get roasted as much as the others, but it was still good. These little peppers are so sweet. On the jalapeno poppers, Tony stuffed them with cream cheese (of course mine was vegan) and wrapped bacon around them (again...vegan bacon for me) These were awesome! Tony did scoop out the seeds because I can't handle all that heat. :o) It was great to not have to turn on the oven for once. Every thing we ate Saturday night was cooked on the grill.

Here's some veggies out of our garden.

Roma's out of our garden...my favorite kind of tomato.

Yummy bell peppers. I love that they are so tiny and sweet.

Here's one one of our bell pepper plants.

Yellow squash...of course.

The squash bugs destroyed our squash plants this year. After they had infected out plants the squash plant still tried to produce some squash but could only make the little squash balls. At least we did get a few squash of the plants before they got infected and died.

This was the first bell pepper that we pulled off our plants...It was huge!

Here are a few pictures of our little garden that we took several weeks ago.

Our garden has about produced all it's going to this year. It's been so hot that the plants are dying. They just aren't able to hang on any longer. Oh, has anyone ever made freezer pickles? I picked the last of my cucumbers over the weekend and found a freezer bread and butter pickle recipe. I didn't really have enough cucumbers to can more pickles, so I decided to give the freezer ones a try. The recipe says to wait at least 2 weeks before trying them, so I'll let you know how those turn out. :o) I hope everyone has a great week!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Thank You....Maggie's Doing Better!

2011-07-27T12:48:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thank you very much for all the prayers and well wishes for Maggie. I also appreciate all the suggestions and information that you guys gave me. I got myself in check Sunday after I read some of your responses to make sure that I was going to be giving off good positive energy for Maggie. You guys were right. Me being upset and sad wasn't the energy that Maggie needed to be feeling. I also stopped doing everything or her and reassured her that she could do it and that she was going to be okay. All these things seem to be helping in her recovery. Maggie is doing a lot better. She is getting around better and is eating on her own now. She doesn't freak out as much when we leave the room now either. I took her back to the vet yesterday for a checkup to see how her healing was progressing and she got a great report. She still has a little swelling, but the Doc said it should be totally gone after a few more days....YAY! So, hopefully after a few more days Maggie will be back to normal. :-) Again, thank you guys so much. I don't know what I would do with out your love, kind words, and support!

On the food side of things, I did make some dill pickles with some cucumbers out of our garden a few weeks ago. The recipe I used said to wait 3 to 4 weeks before eating them, so in about another week I'm going to be trying them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they are going to be good. This is the first batch of pickles that I've ever made like this. Of course...dill pickles are my favorite....love...love...love dill pickles!

Hopefully all the overtime that I have been working is about to come to a stop, so I can get back into the groove of blogging and reading your blogs. I sure hope so, because I miss all of you! Anyway....I hope everyone is having a great week and continues to do so!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

My Heart is Broken!!!!

2011-07-24T10:06:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I posted, and I have missed blogging terribly. I've been working a lot of over time and by the time I get home, I just can't find it in me to blog. This post isn't a very happy one. I have some sad news. My precious Maggie had to have eye surgery Friday to remove her left eye. This has left my heart broken!

This picture was taken 1 week ago from Friday when I took Maggie to see her vet because her eye had turned a hazy blue color. I thought she was just going blind in that eye, so I hadn't prepared myself for anything worse. When I called to check on her last Friday Dr. Mattie suggested that I take her to a place in Cordova called Advanced Animal Eye Care. That's an hour away from where we live, but that didn't matter to us! Dr. Mattie said she thought she might have glaucoma and that she had a small ulcer on her eye also. That Friday I called and made Maggie an appointment for this past Wednesday to have her eye looked at. I couldn't get off work to take her on Monday, so I had to wait until Wednesday. If I had of known then what was really going on, I would have called in sick on Monday and taken Maggie there right away.

After 4 days from Friday, this is what her eye looked like on Wednesday, when we took her to the specialist. The ulcer had grown tremendously. I could tell it was really hurting her, and I felt so bad for her. Anyway, Dr. Miller (the specialist) said she had a descemetocele ulcer. He said these are normally caused from an injury to the eye. For the life of me I can't figure out what Maggie could have done to her eye. Dr. Miller did say that he thought he could repair the eye, but that he could get in there and end up having to take the eye out if the ulcer had gotten too deep. I asked how much this would cost and honestly about passed out. The cost for her surgery would be $1500. I knew at that moment that I was going to be failing Maggie as a mom, because there was no way that I could afford to save her eye. Dr. Miller was even going to charge $1200 just to remove her eye. I had no idea what we were going to do. I called my vet back home and she said that she could remove the eye for $150. I knew that was the only route we could go. I was sooo sick to my stomach because I was failing Maggie!

Below is what Maggie's eye looked like Friday morning before I took her to the vet. I can only imagine how much pain she was in. I held it together pretty well until I took her inside to drop her off for surgery. I totally lost it at the moment. Everyone at the clinic assured me that Maggie would be just fine. I knew I had to have faith and stay strong. Of course I totally lost when I got to work too. Most people don't understand how a person can get so upset over something like this. They say she's only a dog. Maggie is more than a dog for me, and I know most of you can relate. She is our daughter. I've had her for 13 years, and she has brought me through some very tough times. Anyway, later in the morning I called to check on her and she had made it through surgery just fine.

I tried to prepare myself for how she would look, and it didn't look as bad as what I thought. I brought her home Friday evening and she seemed to be doing pretty well. Yesterday was a different story. I had to work, so I wasn't able to be home with her. Thank God that Tony was able to stay home with her. She seemed to be in a lot of pain yesterday, so Dr. Mattie met Tony at the clinic and gave Maggie a shot for pain. Her eye was swollen pretty bad, so she gave her an antibiotic shot also and sent some antibiotics home with her. She also called in a prescription for pain meds. Here's Maggie on Friday after I got her home. I have cried and cried for her. I know she doesn't understand what's going on.

As most of you know Maggie is handicapped already due to her back, so she is having a very hard time adjusting. She doesn't want us to get out of her sight. If we leave the room, she just cries and cries. I just don't know what to do for her. We take her out and she won't even try to use the bath room...she just sits in the yard and cries. All I can say is that my heart is broken! I want to make her feel better and for her to know that everything will be okay. I honestly think she is scared. Does that make sense? I know there are some dog experts out there, so does anyone have any advise as to what I can do to help her through this? I can't get her to eat today either, therefore she's not getting her meds. I have her on the couch with me as I type this, and this seems to be the first time that she has rested since Friday night.

Sorry for such a downer post, but you all know Maggie, and I wanted to share with you what's going on with her. Please send some prayers and love her way for her to get better soon.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Tuesday Night Pasta Salad

2011-06-23T14:25:00.000-05:00

Heellloo everyone! I so meant to post this yesterday, but just didn't have time. I've been seeing pasta salads everywhere lately and have been wanting to make one, but never really had the right veggies on hand to throw one together. This time I just happen to have a small variety of some good veggies, so I whipped up a pasta salad for supper Tuesday night. Here's what mine consisted of ~

whole wheat rotini (1/2 box)

broccoli (1 bunch)

asparagus (1 small bunch)

zucchini (1 med )

2 Roma's, diced

1 carrot, shredded

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp basil, dried (I totally forgot that I had fresh basil growing outside until I was eating...duh)

1 tsp herbamare

salt and pepper, to taste

1/4 cup Italian dressing

1 tbs olive oil

2 tbs nutritional yeast

Bring water to a boil and add pasta. While pasta is cooking chop, dice, mince and shred the veggies. Once the pasta has finished cooking, drain and rinse in a colander. Add the pasta back into the pot, and add all the vegetables except for the carrots and tomatoes. Add about 1/4 cup water and olive oil. Cook over low/med heat to slightly cook/steam the veggies. After about 5 minutes add the carrots, tomatoes, Italian dressing, other spices, and the nutritional yeast. Cook for another 5 minutes, or longer if you want your vegetables cooked more. You may need to add more water to prevent the pasta from sticking if you choose to cook yours longer.

I'll definitely be making more of this pasta salad. It turned out great. Tuesday night I ate it hot, but Wednesday for lunch I ate it cold. I definitely prefer my pasta hot. For some reason cold pasta weirds me out a little...kinda like cold pizza...just not my favorite. I can and will eat it cold....I just prefer it hot. This would be a good pasta salad to take to a family/ friends get together this summer. I need to remember that for any future parties that I may be attending. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

The Best Black Bean Burgers

2011-06-20T13:59:00.001-05:00

Happy Monday! Huh...Monday already...that's what Maggie says! :o) I agree...the weekends just go by way to fast! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was good, but nothing to really blog about except for the Black Bean Burgers that I made last night.

I used this recipe from Simply Life, but made a couple of changes. I am dying to try her pretzel rolls that she used as buns for the burgers. They look and sound delish! Anyway, my picture of the burgers don't do them justice. I decided to eat them without a bun also, since I had fresh zucchini out of the garden and corn out of the freezer. Speaking of corn, my corn that I put up last summer is almost gone. Thank goodness it's time for corn to be coming in, because it's time to replenish my stock in the freezer. Okay...back to the burgers. Here's how I made mine. Like I said, I only made a few changes to her recipe.

1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 flax egg (1tbs flax seeds/3tbs water)

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (I toasted 2 slices of wheat bread)

1/2 large portobello mushroom, chopped into small pieces

1 teaspoon Basil

1 teaspoon Oregano

1/2 teaspoon Garlic powder

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1-2 tbs. olive oil for cooking

1. Mash beans in a bowl using a fork. Add flax egg, onion, bread crumbs, chopped mushroom, seasonings and Worcestershire sauce and mix together. Shape into 6 patties.

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Cook the patties for about 5 minutes per side, or until golden brown.

I can only imagine what these would taste like with all the toppings on them and in burger form. They were delicious the way I ate them, and they had the best taste. Must have been the worcestershire sauce. The next time I make them, I will be having them burger style though and on a pretzel roll. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Baked Apple Crostata

2011-06-17T13:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! Last night when I got home from work I whipped up this Baked Apple Crostata before cooking supper. I adapted this pie from the Cran-Peach one that I made a while back. While the filling was different, I did go by the original baking directions that can be found here. I had some baked apples in the freezer that I had made back in the fall, so I thawed them out to use as the pie filling. I rolled out my pie crust and added the baked apples, topped it off with some chopped walnuts and pecans (Tony's idea), and then folded the crust up around the filling. It turned out to be VERY good. Tony and I both thought it was better than the Cran-Peach one from a while back. A cup of coffee made this the perfect dessert. :o)

If you don't have a frozen pie crust then you can easily make your own. I found a great pie crust recipe the other day online. If you don't already have a homemade pie crust recipe then you should check this one out at http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-recipes/desserts/vegan-pie-crust.htm.

I hope you have a great weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Where Have I Been ?????

2011-06-15T08:31:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well! I think it's been almost a month since I have posted, or read your blogs. Sorry I have been away, but life happened. My mom has been in the hospital, but she is home now and doing better. I've been trying to take care of her along with working a lot of over time, so that hasn't left me much free time. What free time I've had, Tony and I have just been trying to chill. :o) I hope to be back on my normal routine very soon. I have really missed everyone!

Our little garden that we have is thriving. Here's our yellow squash that is coming right along. Tony took this picture yesterday, so these little guys should be ready to eat in the next day or two. I can't wait. Are you getting any veggies out of your garden yet? Oh....question....has anyone ever cooked squash greens? Tony read that cooked squash greens were very good and supposed to be very good for you. I haven't had time to look into it, but I was just curious if anyone has had them. If so, how did you cook yours and did you like the squash greens?

Here's two zucchinis that we picked last night. Yes, we ate one of them last night, but it wasn't a healthy version. :o)

Here's the zucchini all fried up. It was soooo good. The Old Town Spaghetti Store serves fried zucchini like this as an appetizer. We got some when we went there to eat a while back and loved it so much that we decided we needed to try to recreate it. Tony's the one who actually cooked it, and it was almost spot on. He dredged each slice in soy milk, then into a wheat flour / corn meal mixture. He added a little salt to half the batch and on the other half he sprinkled some Red Robin's seasoning, which to me was the best tasting. He then fried it in a little canola oil. The Spaghetti store serves theirs with marinara sauce. We didn't have any though, but I really don't think it needed it. :o) I also made some fried rice, which I think is the best that I've made so far. I used basmati rice, half a bag of frozen veggies, half an onion, a portobello mushroom, some soy sauce, ginger powder, and pepper. Very simple and very good! And of course there's a Boca Chik'n patty on my plate too. Yummy supper!

Work has been pretty stressful over the last few weeks. Since we have moved to a ~~new~~ old building, I have something that I can do to de-stress. There's a pond in the front of our building that has a covered bridge across it. The neat thing about the pond is that it is home for a bunch of turtles that love to be fed. I go our there every morning and afternoon on my break and feed them bread. It is so cool and actually very relaxing. It's almost like being at a zoo. They all come swimming up to fight over the bread. They even look up at you as if they are saying....me..me..me...feed me. :o)

Here's a close up of the cute turtles. I just love the little guys! :o)

That's all for now. I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that I was still kickin and hope to be back to my normal blogging within the next week or two. I hope everyone is doing well!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

What I've Been Eating This Week.....

2011-05-26T16:15:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday! Here are a few things that I have been eating this week. The absolute best was what I cooked for supper last night. I had Mexican and it all came from my Happy Herbivore cookbook. First up were these amazing Chili-Lime Corn Chips. They were made from corn tortillas and seasoned with garlic powder, chili powder, salt, and lime zest. Lime juice was also squeezed over the chips right before they were served. I had a feeling these were going to be good, but I had no idea how good. These chips were awesome. I think these would be a big hit at a party.

After I made the chips, I made the HH's loaded nachos. The nachos called for tortilla chips, tomatoes, onion, corn, black beans, jalapenos, olives (I left these out, because I don't like em), nacho cheese sauce, and sour cream. Lindsay has a nacho cheese sauce and a quick queso sauce in her cookbook. I decided to try the quick queso instead of the nacho cheese sauce and it was delicious! The queso over the corn/bean mixture just made the nachos. I left off the sour cream too. She has a recipe for that in her cookbook also, but I just wasn't in the mood for sour cream last night. I did squeeze a little lime juice over the top of the nachos before I dug in though, which was da bomb! Forget eating Mexican out. I had much rather have these nachos, which were so easy to whip up. Making the chips took the longest. If you use store bought chips you could be eating this in less than 30 minutes. Now that's what I'm talking about. :o)

Tuesday night I made a personal pizza out of pita bread, some left over spaghetti sauce, veggie cheese, chorizo, spinach, and tomato with some salt and basil sprinkled on top. I also decided to finish off some asparagus before it ruined. I'm working on cleaning out the frig and have almost succeeded. It's now time to go grocery shopping again.

Monday night I had a salad.

Monday morning I had a smoothie. I've been making very simple smoothies lately, because I've been working some overtime. I opted to go into work early instead of staying late, so that doesn't leave me much spare time in the mornings. This smoothie was so good! Here are the ingredients.

1 1/2 cup soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
1 scoop Chocolate Amazing Grass
1/2 scoop protein powder
1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen cherries.

Throw it all in the blender until smooth and creamy. Poor it in a glass and run out the door. :o)
I've never been a real big fan of cherries, but they make the best smoothies! I am now a fan of cherries...frozen ones at least.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Weekend Eats and Treats

2011-05-23T13:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. My thoughts and prayers are going out to all the people who have been affected by the tornadoes over the weekend. It's so sad to see all the devastation that the tornadoes have caused. The weather has been so crazy this year!

Friday, I picked Maggie up from the vet. It was her spa day. I was going to take her picture and send it to Tony telling him that his daughter was on her way home. This is the sassy pose I got from her...lol

Yesterday we stayed home and watched movies and relaxed. I actually got some cooking/baking time in also. I finally got around to making some hummus, so I can have some wraps for lunch this week. I used the hummus recipe out of my Veganomicon cookbook this time. The only thing that I did different to the recipe was that I added a roasted red pepper, because I love...love...love roasted red pepper hummus!

Around noon on Sunday we were trying to figure out what in the world we were going to do for lunch. Neither one of us wanted to leave the house, so Tony came up with the idea to make our own personal baked spaghetti's again. We used a store bought mushroom pasta sauce to speed up the process, cause we were starvin! We used whole wheat spaghetti, and I added some asparagus to mine before putting it into the oven. I topped mine with vegan mozzarella, and Tony used the real stuff. Turns out my hubby had a great idea for lunch. :o)

Yesterday afternoon I pulled out my Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World cookbook and made the Simple Vanilla and Agave Nectar Cupcakes. Tony loves vanilla cupcakes, so I thought these would be a great starting place for my first go at making vegan cupcakes. It's hard to believe that I have been a vegan for almost 15 months and this is my first time to make vegan cupcakes. I made a simple strawberry icing to go on top, but my strawberries were all mushy from being in the freezer, so it made the frosting thinner than what it normally is. The cupcakes were awesome though! They were so awesome that Tony ate 3. :o)

Oh, I'm going to skip around here, because I was about to leave out breakfast. Have you ever used this pancake/waffle mix? It's not bad. You just add soy milk and a mashed banana to the mix to make the batter. I did add some cinnamon and pecans to the batter though. They turned out pretty tasty. They aren't as good as when you make them from scratch though, but still good.

It made 4 full size waffles and a partial 5th one. There's a waffle missing from the plate though, because I was so hungry that I added some maple syrup to the waffle and ate it before I even thought about taking a picture.

Ok, so now I'm skipping on to the later part of yesterday which would mean supper time. I made the Herbed Home Fries from The Happy Herbivore. These were delicious! They were so full of flavor. These would be perfect with some tofu scramble. Also on the menu was sweet corn out of the freezer, black eyed peas, and some bok choy that I got at the Farmers Market Saturday morning. I used this recipe for the bok choy, and man was it ever so tasty. I really liked the addition of the ginger.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Baked Eggplant

2011-05-17T15:14:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! I finally got to cook ~~fried~~ baked eggplant for supper last night. I've been wanting to cook it for the last 4 or 5 days, but just didn't have the time. I decided to try it a little different this time, and the outcome was great. I think this is my favorite way of cooking it so far. Here's my recipe.

Baked Eggplant

1 medium size eggplant
2 cups panko bread crumbs
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup coconut milk

Wash, peel, and slice the eggplant. You don't have to peel it, but I did. Slice the eggplant about 1/4 inch thick. Salt both sides and put the eggplant in a colander to drain. I put mine around the colander in a single layer so they would drain easier. Let them drain for about 30 minutes and then wash the salt off and pat them dry.
Put the panko bread crumbs in a shallow bowl and add the spices. Mix the bread crumbs and spices together. Put the whole wheat pastry flour with a little salt and pepper in a separate bowl, and mix that together. Then put the coconut milk in another separate bowl. You should have 3 bowls now for dipping the eggplant.
First, dip the eggplant into the coconut milk. You don't want the eggplant drenched with the milk, so just quickly dip it into the milk and let the excess drip off. Transfer the eggplant into the bowl with the flour and get both sides covered well. Dip the eggplant back into the milk, then into the seasoned bread crumbs and coat well.
Preheat oven to 350. Transfer the breaded eggplant onto a cookie sheet that has been greased with olive oil or vegetable oil. Once all the eggplant slices are on the cookie sheet, spray the tops of the eggplant with olive oil or vegetable oil. Bake for 15 minutes then flip the eggplant and spray the tops with oil. Bake another 15 minutes. I then turned the broiler on for a couple of minutes to lightly brown the tops.

To go along with the baked eggplant I had couscous, steamed carrots & broccoli, and corn on the cob. Oh yeah, I topped my eggplant with some homemade marinara sauce. :o) I've been lacking in the nutrition area over the last few days, so this hit the spot!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Cran-Peach Crostata

2011-05-16T15:36:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! A couple of weeks ago Tony went to Sam's to pick up a few things that we were out of. While he was there they were giving away a free Sam's Club cookbook. All he had to do was give them his email address. That cookbook was the first thing he showed me when I got home that day. He was so proud of it, and I found out why. It has some great recipes in it. We made this Cran-Peach Crostata last night for dessert and it was delicious. The recipe was actually called Peach Raisin Crostata, but we wanted to use cranberries instead of raisins. This was so good that we ate half of it last night. Most of you may have made something similar to this before but this was a first for us and definitely not a last. I have to share the recipe for this, so here it is.....

Cran-Peach Crostata

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 cups fresh peaches or 1 16oz bag frozen peach slices

1 tablespoonon lemon juice

9-inch unbaked pie dough or shell

Preheat oven to 425. Combine cranberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Then, mix in the peaches and lemon juice.

Lay pie dough out onto a greased non stick cookie sheet. Mound fruit in the center of the dough leaving a 1-2 inch border. Fold dough around the fruit mixture, gently pleating and pressing dough against mixture.

Bake 10 minutes at 425. Reduce temperature to 350 and bake 20-25 minutes, or just until crust is golden brown. Leave to cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with powder sugar if you desire.

There is one change that I will make to this recipe when we make it again. I will only use 1/2 cup of cranberries instead of 1 cup. That was just to many cranberries for us. Oh....Tony's the one who folded the dough around the fruit. Didn't he do a great job! :o)

Well, that's it for today. Maggie wishes everyone a fantastic week!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Amazing Hempie Smoothie & Frech Toast

2011-05-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Last Thursday I got a few things that I ordered from Vitacost in the mail. I've been out of hemp seeds, tahini, and Amazing Grass for a while now, so I figured it was time to order them, since I can't find them where I live. I have found that Vitacost is one of the cheapest places to order them. I've never used the Joya tahini, so I am looking forward to making hummus with it. I read the reviews on it, and they made it sound great. What brand of tahini do you use?

Since I got some more Chocolate Amazing Grass Green Supper Food, I made a smoothie out of it for breakfast Friday. It wasn't very thick, but sure tasted great. Here's what I used:

1 large frozen banana
1scoupe chocolate Amazing Grass
3 tablespoons of hemp seeds
1 cup coconut milk
a dash of cinnamon

Put everything in the blender and blend until creamy. I added 2 ice cubes to my smoothie, because I wanted it super cold. I would have loved to added some ice into the blender, but my blender does NOT like ice cubes. So, feel free to put a few ice cubes in the blender with everything. I think it would make it thicker. :o)

Saturday morning I made french toast that was the best that I have ever made. Here's my recipe....

1/2 banana (mashed)
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 slices of whole wheat bread
vegan butter

Mash the banana up and then add the maple syrup and mix together well. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk together until mixed well.. Add about a tablespoon of vegan butter to a non stick skillet and melt over medium heat. Dip the bread into the mixture and add to the heated skillet. When the first side is done, add more butter and flip. Cook until that side is done. You may need to flip the toast a couple of times until it is cooked to your liking (I did). Once cooked to your liking, plate it and add your favorite topping. I had some left over cooked apples, so that's what I used, and it was delicious. Tony even loved it. So, it is non-vegan approved!

Saturday night I made Happy Herbivores scrambled tofu. The directions call for using 1 cup of vegetables. I was out of spinach and mushrooms, which is what I really like in my scrambled tofu, so I used kale in place of the spinach. I added some bell pepper too. The turnout was great, but I like the spinach better than kale in my scrambled tofu. HH's recipe was excellent though. I'll definitely make it again!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'll be catching up on my blog reading on and off today!

~Peace~Love~Happiness!

A LIttle Something Different.....

2011-05-13T13:23:00.007-05:00

Hey guys, I have something a little different for today. Yesterday morning, Tony woke up with some things on his mind and decided that he needed to write his thoughts down. When I read it, I really wanted to share it with you. Yes, he knows and yes, he approves. What do ya think?

Where Are You Planted?

Sometimes we have to ask ourselves, can we flourish and grow where we're planted. I was reading a blog that was shared by a friend on Facebook by Lolly Daskal and it was titled, "Don't give up Before your Time". In her blog, she talked about the frustration of a man that had a fruit tree that would bear no fruit. He had done everything that he could to help this tree, but it would not bear fruit. His frustration caused him to want to cut the tree down and quit. In her story, she posed the questions of "Where is your dream planted and can it be supported there?" Wow, I had never thought of it quite that way. As painful as it is, sometimes we are uprooted by storms in our lives and are forced to take a hard look at our root system. Does it really support me and provide me what I need to bear fruit?

Years ago, I kept a peace lily that was sent to me for my grandfather's funeral. It always meant so much to me, that I was always careful to care for it. But as time passed, I noticed that it began to wither. The blooming ceased and the leaves wilted and began to turn brown. I watered it, I fertilized it, but it just never seemed to live with the vibrance that it once did. It was just barely hanging on, at best. I couldn't stand the thought of losing this plant, after all, this plant was in the place that I last saw my grandfather. I worried and worried about what I could do to save this plant, but, I'm no gardener. What else could I do? After I had exhausted everything that I knew to do, I finally went to my mom, who has an incredible green thumb and can make anything grow. She was the best gardener that I knew. I told her my problem and with absolutely no worry in her voice at all, she said as simply as she could say it, "Oh, you'll just have to transplant it, it's used up all the nutrients from the soil it's planted in."

As in life, sometimes we've used up all the nutrients where we've been planted. Sometimes we have to go the the Master Gardener and say, I want to live in the way that you intended. I want to stick with the dreams that you've given me and I want to bear the fruit. I want to see the blooms more beautiful than ever. I know that it's risky, I know that it may be uncomfortable at first, and I know that's there's always a chance of dying. A chance of not seeing the beautiful vibrance of yesterday, but what will happen if I do nothing. Death will surely come. The same pertains to us and our lives. We can't worry or fret on the way things used to be or the way that we wished they were. We can't get upset or make things more complicated than they really are. We just have to be honest about where we are, where we're trying to get to, and yes, sometimes we just have to move to more fertile ground. Just my thoughts....

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Happy Herbivore's African Kale and Yam Soup

2011-05-11T12:31:00.002-05:00

Happy Hump Day!!! Last night I had planned on having fried eggplant, but things got changed up a bit, so I ended up making the African Kale and Yam Soup from The Happy Herbivore cookbook. If you don't have this cookbook and would like a chance to win a copy, head over to Veggie Burgher. You have until the 16th to enter her contest. Everything I have made from this cookbook has been delicious, so go enter her contest for a chance to win. :o)

The African Kale and Yam Soup was very good. I have to be honest, I wasn't sure how kale and yams would be together, but they totally meshed! The spice mixture consisted of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, curry powder, miso paste (I left this out, because I didn't have any), and cinnamon. I cooked Tony some basmati rice to go with his casserole that he requested, so I put a little rice in the bottom of my bowl and put the soup over it. Another keeper and a definite will make again recipe!

Here's my very green smoothie that I had Tuesday morning. I haven't been eating as healthy the last couple of weeks since we have been so busy, so I thought I should double up on my greens (not sure why). The only down side to this smoothie is that my blender didn't want to blend all that kale up very well, so it was a little chunky. It was still very good though. For this smoothie I used:

3 kale leaves
1 1/2 cups water
1 date
1 frozen banana
3/4 cup frozen mixed fruit (strawberries, pineapple, and mango)
about a 1/2 inch chunk of ginger
1/2 scoop of pea protein powder

If you don't have a high powered blender, you might want to put the water, kale and ginger in the blender first and blend that for a couple of minutes like I do. Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until it's as smooth as you can get it. :o)

Do any of you coupon? I'm just starting, because I really need to cut back on spending so much for groceries. I have a friend who saves big time by couponing. Kroger had their Larabars on sale last week. They were buy 10 or $10. I had 2 coupons for $1 off when you buy 4. I ended up getting 10 Larabars for $8....not a bad deal, huh? They are normally $1.49 each. That was my big save over the weekend. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Our Little Garden And A Few Other Things.....

2011-05-09T14:09:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday!!! I hope everyone had a great weekend, and I hope all you mothers had a great Mothers Day! We planted our little garden last weekend, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it. We planted some zucchini, yellow squash, several different kinds of peppers, cucumbers (they're around the patio though), eggplant, Roma tomatoes, and some other kind of tomato. Most of the plants seem to be doing good. There are a few that we are going to have to replace due to all the rain and flooding that we got last week. At least most of them survived.

Here's our little garden spot.

Maggie is watching over everything. :o)

Maggie supervising Tony to make sure he does everything right.

As you see...I don't need supervision....ha Yes, I was barefoot...that's how Southerners do it. :o)

One night for dinner I steamed some frozen veggies. I also made some orzo to go along with it. After the orzo had cooked, I added some sundried tomatoes, garlic, a little dried basil, olive oil, a dash of red wine, salt, and pepper. The orzo turned out to be pretty tasty. I found an orzo recipe that I want to try very soon. Hopefully it will be on the menu for next week. This week is going to be another busy week, but I am determined to fit a little blogging time in.!

This morning I had a smoothie (as usual). I decided to buy some coconut milk over the weekend, so I used that to make my VERY simple smoothie this morning.

1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen strawberries
a dash of cinnamon
1/2 scoop of pea protein powder
1tsp maca powder.

I threw everything in the blender and blended away until nice and creamy. This was awesome for a change. I love the creaminess of the coconut milk!

Friday night we rode the motorcycle out to eat. I asked Tony to run to Wal-Mart before we headed home, and this bus was in the parking lot. I thought it was so cool, so I had to take a picture of it. The signs say "Sloppy 2nds" and "Free Food". I so want that bus!!! :o) It was getting cold (we weren't prepared for it to get that cold while on the bike), so I didn't go up to see what the bus was all about. I wish I would have now though. I would love to know the story behind it.

~Peace~Love~Happiness

A Week Later.....

2011-05-05T14:50:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday....what a crazy week it has been! :o) I just realized that it has been a week since I posted. I've been so busy that I haven't even had the chance to read your blogs, which stinks! Hopefully after this weekend things will be back to normal and I can get back into my routine of seeing what your up to.

I did want to write a quick post though to share my goodie pack with you that I received from Carissa over at Coffee & Sunshine. She sent me a jar of harvest nectar truffles, a bag of organic rose petals, two stickers, and a very sweet card. I won this in a giveaway that she did, and I am so glad that I was the lucky winner! I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful the truffles are. I will definitely be ordering of these. I've never had anything like these truffles. They are so creamy and full of flavor. Tony and I both only ate one...they were pretty rich, so we thought one should do us. I really could have eaten the whole jar though (they were that good), but I figured it might be a good idea to spread them out over the next few days and share. Yes, Tony loved them as much as I did. :o)

Check out UliMana's website if you want some really good raw truffles.

Here's a close up picture of the yummy truffles.

To Carissa - Thank you so much for the goodies! I can't wait to put the stickers on my truck, and the rose petals smell so good!!! I'm just sad that the truffles aren't going to last very long! :o) Thanks for the sweet card too. :o)

Hopefully I will be back in the next few days with some good eats and treats. :o) I hope you all have a great rest of the week and weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Happy Herbivore's Chana Palak Masala

2011-04-29T14:20:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday! Did I mention that I finally got my copy of The Happy Herbivore in the mail the other day? If not, I did...YAY. I just saw where Lindsay posted on facebook that Amazon is almost sold out of her cookbook again. I can see why it goes so fast. It's loaded with great recipes. I can already tell you that this cookbook will be used very often, and I have a very strong feeling that it is going to be my favorite. Heck, I even thought about pulling a Julie and Julia with it. :o) Every recipe in it sounds awesome. If you don't have this cookbook, you should really get it.

I made Lindsay's Chana Palak Masala last night for supper. This was a very fast and easy meal to put together. I think it took 30 minutes from start to finish, and that included chopping the onion and garlic. It looks like most of the recipes in her cookbook are very simple. There's not a lot of ingredients that you've (I've) never heard of, which I LOVE! The Chana Palak Masala was exceptional! It was made up of canned tomatoes, chickpeas, fresh spinach, veggie broth, onion, garlic and some spices. Very yummy!

I hope you have a GREAT weekend! I hope to be planting some veggies and flowers this weekend. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~