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~

Not Tuna Pate' and Grilled BBQ Tofu

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~

Smoothie, Quiche, Brownie Balls, and Saturday Pictures

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~

Super Green Smoothie and Raw No-Tuna

Happy Good Friday!  I'm sure most of you were lucky enough to have today off.  I wasn't so lucky this year.  The company I work for got bought out last year and a lot of changes were made.  No more Good Friday's off just happened to be one of them.  I'm still thankful for my job though.  :o)

This morning I had a Super Green Smoothie!  I put more ginger in this one, so it had a bit more bite to it, but it was excellent!  The ingredients are below.  I put the first 5 ingredients in my blender first and put the blender on the juice setting, so I wouldn't have a chunky smoothie.  I let that blend for at least a minute.  Then, I added the frozen fruit and changed my blender setting to smoothie and let that blend for another minute.  If you're like me and don't have a high power blender like a Blendtec or Vitamix, then this method works great.  My smoothies always come out smooth when I use this process.

1 cup water

3 kale leaves

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of minced ginger (I think I actually put a little more)

1 date

1 frozen banana

1/2 cup frozen mango chunks 

For lunch I had a salad with some Raw No-Tuna on it.  The recipe came from the Raw Food Made Easy cookbook.  I've been wanting to make this ever since I saw FoodFeud make it.  I finally remembered to put the raw sunflower seeds and almonds in some water to soak before I left for work yesterday.  I seem to always forget to do that.  This was so easy to make and so good!  It's made out of sunflower seeds, almonds, salt, water, lemon juice, onion and celery. I can't wait to experiment a little more with the recipe. I have to say that I think I like it better than the curried walnut pate that I made a while back.  They're both great but the no-tuna's the best.

 

I hope you have a great Easter Weekend whether you celebrate Easter or not.  We do, which reminds me that I need to get an Easter dress for church.  :o)  Looks like shopping is going to be on my agenda for Saturday.  Anyway, everyone have a great weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Partial Raw....Day 7

Hey everyone! So, today is day 7, and I feel great! I never knew eating more raw foods could make this big of a difference in how you feel. Today at work we had a potluck for two people that are leaving the company. The man loves tacos, so they fixed up a taco bar for them. I didn't even go over to where all the food was, because I knew there wouldn't really be anything that I could eat. Everyone's about meat where I work, however a coworker in our department made some homemade salsa....uh oh! I love chips and salsa! So, you know what I did...yep...I had a few chips and salsa. The strange thing is, as I was eating the chips and salsa, I could feel my stomach bloating. Now, is that weird or what? After that I stopped eating them. I only had about 10 chips if that many. I couldn't see making myself feel miserable. Anyway, this morning I had a bright green smoothie. :o) It consisted of 1 cup of water, 1 banana, 1 cup frozen mango chunks, kale, and a little cinnamon and ginger powder. Oh, and about a teaspoon of honey. Here's a picture of my wheat berry salad that I made last night. I soaked a cup of wheat berries in about 3 cups of water for 24 hours. I soaked them in a mason jar with the lid on. I set the jar in a corner on my kitchen counter. After 24 hours I drained, then rinsed the wheat berries. I put them back in the jar and put a paper towel over the lid with a rubber band. I did this because I didn't have any cheese cloth. One of these days I will learn to be prepared...ha Anyway, I turned the jar on it side and put it back in the corner where I had it to begin with. After 24 more hours I had sprouts. :o) I decided to make a wheat berry salad out of the wheat berry sprouts. I found a recipe on the food network site that sounded good, but she (Barefoot Contessa) used cooked wheat berries and onions, where as I didn't. I also used a yellow onion, because I didn't have a red one. Click here for the recipe. It was good, but not great. It needed something else. I think some chopped apple would have made it much better, maybe even great. I just may add some chopped apple to what's left and see how that works. I'll let you know how that turns out.

For lunch I put the wheat berry salad on my kale salad. There again, it was good, but not great.

I didn't eat as much as I normally do for lunch, so I was pretty hungry by 2:30. I pulled out my chocolate chip cookie dough Larabar and ate half of that. Oh my....that rocks! So far that and the brownie are are my favorite. I really haven't eaten one that I dislike yet. It just boils down to the fact that I love chocolate. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Partial Raw...Day 6

Happy Monday! Today was day 6 of my partial raw day. This morning I had a smoothie of course. There wasn't much effort put into this one, as I was in a rush this morning. I slept a little longer than I had anticipated. This smoothie consisted of 1 cup of water, a handful of spinach, 1 frozen banana, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, a few pieces of mixed frozen fruit, 1 teaspoon of flax seeds, 1/2 a pear, some cinnamon and ginger powder. I had half a pear in the frig left over from my fruit bowl yesterday, so I decided to throw it into the blender too. I couldn't taste it in the smoothie though. It was still another yummy smoothie. Is there anything you eat or drink all the time? I seriously don't think I will ever get tired of smoothies. No two ever taste the same. Last night I made the curried walnut pate from Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet. When I got finished making it, I got a little weirded out, because it looked like potted meat....bleh. I remember my mom eating that stuff when I was a kid....gross. Anyway, it was bed time, so I did't taste it. I decided to just wait till lunch today.

For lunch today I had a salad with some of the curried walnut pate. I first put some on a carrot to see what it taste like. Wow, I was amazed at how good it was. I was wondering if it would taste anything like walnuts, but it didn't. I don't know how to exlain the taste, but it was very good. I will be making it again. That's for sure. It went great with the salad.

For supper I had a chik'n sandwich with some juice. A friend of mine had a Jack LaLanne juicer that she got for Christmas a couple of years ago but never used it. She called me one day and asked if I would like to have it. Of course I said sure, but I couldn't just take it, so I donated a little money to her husbands missonary fund. I've had it for over a month, but haven't really had the chance to use it. I put it to use tonight though. This juice consisted of 1cup of spinach, 1/2 cucumber, 2 stalks of celery, 4 small carrots, and 1/2 a pear. Juicing is so healthy, so I am trying to figure out an easy way to be able to juice more often.

Over the weekend I sprouted some wheat berries....YAY....this is the first thing that I have sprouted. I am going to make a wheat berry salad with them...I think. I'll let you know tomorow what I did with them. I was so excited to see those little sprouts...ha I can't wait to sprout some beans now. :o)

Have a good night!

Peace~Love~Happiness~