T G I F

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! 

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~

Another 3 Day Weekend Recap

 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~

Recap From My 3 Day Weekend

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~

Catching Up.....

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~

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

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!

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~

HH Meatballs and Other Stuff

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~