A Few Eats From The Weekend

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~

Better Late than Never......

 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

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~

Just Food.....

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~

Pancakes and Tempeh Orzilla

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~

A Pumpkin Kind of Morning and Vegan Care Package Swap

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

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~

Portobello Steaks Rock

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~

Falafel Was A Success

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~

HH's Portobello Steaks

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...

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~