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! 

Pizza with Potato Cashew Cheese

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~

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~

Amazing Hempie Smoothie & Frech Toast

 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!

Today Is The Day!

TGIF....I am so excited that today is Friday. Most everyone likes Fridays, because it means the weekend is here. :o) I am super excited that today is Friday, because my husband comes home....YAY! I'm sure most of you have noticed that there hasn't been any mentioning of Tony over the last couple of weeks. Well, that's because he has been in Uruguay for the last 10 days on a missionary trip with our church. Let me just say that the next time I am going with him....no leaving me behind again. :) My morning started off with a smoothie of course, but I did something different this morning. Everyone is putting a medjool date in their smoothie, so I thought I needed to try it. I needed see what all the hype was about. Turns out it makes for a great addition to the smoothie. It adds a little touch of sweetness, at least that's what it seemed to me. This mornings smoothie consisted of: spinach, frozen banana, frozen mango chunks, flax seeds, pea protein powder, water, and one date. It was yummy for my tummy!!!!

I still had some scrambled tofu left over from Wednesday night, so I thought I would make a wrap for lunch. I put some lettuce, shredded carrots, the scrambled tofu, a few left over fried potatoes, and cucumbers on a wheat tortilla.

Here it is all wrapped up with some salt and pepper Kettle chips on the side. This morning after I got to work, I was wishing I would have just brought enough leafy lettuce to make lettuce wraps instead of using a wheat tortilla. I wonder if your stomach can shrink when you eat raw food? I've noticed that my stomach doesn't bloat when I eat raw, and I could only eat half of this wrap and a few chips. I was so full after eating that. Now normally I would have been able to eat the entire wrap or close to it anyway. So, I wonder what's up with that?

I hope you have a great weekend!

P.S. Blogger has a mind of its own today. It won't keep my spacing correct, so please look over the errors, especially in the first one big paragraph....errrrrr

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Breakfast for Supper

Do you ever eat breakfast foods for supper? I used to love breakfast for supper, so that's what I had last night. I cooked some fried potatoes with some Red Robin's seasoning sprinkled on them....YUM! These were almost as good as Red Robin's french fries....almost. I also made the tofu scramble from my Vegan Comfort Food cookbook by Alicia C. Simpson. I went exactly by the directions except for one little addition. I just had to add a little spinach. :o) The scrambled tofu had the following ingredients in it: onion, minced garlic, chopped red bell pepper, cumin, thyme, paprika, turmeric, sea salt, chopped tomato, and nutritional yeast. It was very good. I was a little unsure of the amount of nutritional yeast that the recipe called for, but it turned out perfect....very good! I also has some Smart Bacon to complete my breakfast. Lunch was another salad. I added some left over tofu scramble to it. :o)

Oh, I left out breakfast. I'm sure you can guess what I had. I didn't take a picture of my smoothie this morning, because it wasn't anything new. It was good as always though.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Where I've Been and Scrambled Tofu

I saw this map over at Molly's and Michelle's place. It's a map of all the states that I have visited so far. I thought Molly's and Michelle's was cool, so I just had to go do one of my own. If you would like to do a map of all the places that you have traveled go here. Looks like I have visited 20 states so far. Some we just basically drove thru. How cool would it be to be able to go visit each state? That's something that I would love to do. I wonder if I could get a years worth of paid vacation to do that....lol

Maggie wanted to say Hi to everyone! This is how she sits every night while I am cooking supper. She is staring into the kitchen as I cook. Do you suppose she is hungry? It seems like as more time passes she ends up sitting mostly on her back. She gets spasms in her back legs and they will just pop up in the air. Poor baby! The vet said the spasms are because the nerve around her tail bone is getting pinched and as it becomes more inflamed it causes spasms. :(

Last night for dinner I made some scrambled tofu and it was yummy! I sauteed 1/2 bell pepper (chopped), 1 celery stalk (minced), 1/2 onion (chopped), and 2 cloves of garlic (minced) in some olive oil for about 10 minutes. After about 10 minutes, I added a portobello mushroom (chopped), drained firm tofu, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, and enough salt and pepper to taste. After that had cooked for about 10 minutes I added a little nutritional yeast and cooked it a little longer. I can't get over how much it actually looks like scrambled eggs. :o)

Tomorrow is the big announcement for the winner of the Country Bob's sauce....YAY. You still have time to get in the drawing if you would like to do so. Just go here, and tell me what you would like to put the sauce on.


There's another giveaway that you can get in on too over at LaceyLovesFood. She is giving away a copy of The Happy Herbivore. I've heard it's a great cookbook. It's actually the next cookbook that I hope to get. :o)


~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Peanut Butter Mousse

Happy Monday! It was a busy weekend of studying for me, so there wasn't much cooking going on. My mother-n-law gave me a couple of Food Network magazines last week when she made us that delicious soup. Do you ever look at the Food Network magazine? I found several vegan recipes in it and I have found several that I am going to veganize. I made this peanut butter mousse from the magazine last night. Oh my...It was so good and did it ever hit the spot. Most of you guys have probably made something similar to this before, but this was my first try in using tofu in any kind of dessert. I was very impressed with how good it was. Here's the simple recipe.

1 package of silken tofu (12.3oz)
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup confectioners sugar

Put the three ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Pour into 4 glasses and cover with saran wrap. Put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before eating.

I added some dark chocolate shavings to mine right before I ate it. Talk about yummy! No, Tony wouldn't try it. :o)


Now I'll take you back to my dinner. I had to get dessert out of the way since it was so good! For dinner I had a salad made of kale, leafy green lettuce, broccoli, carrots, avocado, sunflower seeds, and a few dried pomegranates. For the dressing, I whisked together some lime juice, olive oil, and pepper. I poured the dressing over the kale and lettuce first and massaged it into the greens, then added my other veggies. This was one awesome salad.

I also had a side of roasted potatoes that Tony made. He put Red Robin seasoning, paprika, and some dried oregano on the potatoes and then cooked them in the oven. These were awesome too! My dinner and dessert rocked last night and not much effort at all was put into it. Now that's the way to go! :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Mini Crustless Tofu Quiche

Happy Friday! As most of you know, I was off work yesterday due to snow. As I was reading blogs and posting my blog on the laptop in the den yesterday, my husband called me into our office to come look at the snowman that a friend of his just made. Check out what she did...isn't he too cute. I just had to share her snowman (dog) with everyone, being as most of us are huge animal lovers.

The picture below is what I came back to after I got up out of the floor to go check out the picture of the snow dog. Maggie had been sitting by me all day and just couldn't seem to get close enough. She was in a VERY loving mood yesterday. I think she was happy that I was home. Anyway, I had been sitting on a small pillow while I used the computer that was on the coffee table. I lost my seat when I got up. I came back and Maggie had claimed my pillow. :o)

For lunch today I had an awesome salad that was inspired by FoodFued. I mixed Kale with some leafy lettuce and threw in some shaved carrots, dried cranberries and pepita seeds. I marinated the kale and leafy lettuce as FoodFued suggested. She was right on about how awesome it was. I sure wish I would've had some avocado and tomatoes to add to the salad though. They are on my grocery list for the next time though. I also had three leftover Quiche's to go with my salad....YUM!

Last night for supper I had Tuscan Risotto, Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches, fresh corn on the cob, and a crescent roll. Has anyone ever tried this Risotto? It was very good! My husband spotted it when we went to Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago. This was one of the things that he wanted to try. Yep...he liked it.Here's what my plate looked like last night. I made the Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches from Fat Free Vegan. You can find her recipe here. I was overly impressed with these Quiches. I honestly didn't know what to expect, but they were fantastic. These would be perfect for an appetizer or a great finger food to have at a party. This recipe is definitely a keeper! I think everyone would love these!

Here's a close up picture of the Quiches. These were also great warmed up!

I hope you have a great weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Some Weekend Foods....Let the Goals Begin

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. It's hard to believe that it's already come and gone. Why do the weekends fly by? I had all these things planned that I was going to do, but didn't get half of them accomplished. Now that it's Monday, my goals that I posted on Friday are running through my head and I am determined to stick to them this week. Below are a few things that I had to eat over the weekend.

First up is Viva Vegan's Zesty Orange Mojo Baked Tofu. The first time I cooked baked tofu, I wasn't that crazy about it. It was okay, but not my fave. Of course now I always try something again, but this time I used a new recipe. This is the first recipe that I have made from Viva Vegan. If the other recipes in this cookbook are going to be anything like this one, then I am going to LOVE this cookbook. This is by far the best tofu that I have cooked. It was perfect in every way. My husband even commented on how good it looked. Oh course that as far as he went with that....no taste test for him. The marinade consisted of olive oil, soy sauce,
orange juice, lime juice, orange zest, garlic cloves, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper. I can't wait to try more recipes from this cookbook!

I made a salad to go along with the tofu, which was perfect.

For breakfast Saturday morning we had oatmeal. I, just about all the time, add dried cranberries to our steel cut oats when I cook them. I had cooked some apples on the stove, so I topped my cranberry oatmeal with some of the apples, some slivered almonds and a sprinkle of coconut. I took one bite and wondered why in the world I hadn't done this before. I promise the cranberries are hidden under the apples. There's some cinnamon and maple syrup in there also. I wish I had the time to make this my breakfast every morning.

Okay, Saturday night was pasta again. No more pasta for me this week! We had been out shopping all afternoon Saturday so it was fairly late when we got home. Neither one of us wanted to stand up and cook so we decided on "his and her" baked spaghetti. We whipped up some pasta sauce while the whole wheat spaghetti cooked. Once the noodles had finished cooking, we put them in single serving size dishes and then added some sauce and topped it off with cheese. We then put the spaghetti in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.

This is Tony's with real mozzarella. Why does regular cheese look so much better when it melts than vegan cheese. He drizzled a little olive oil over the top of his and sprinkled some basil over that before his went into the oven. Looks pretty huh?


Here's mine....not near as pretty as Tony's, but I'm sure it tasted better. :o) Oh yeah, we had left over onion rings from Red Robin with our spaghetti. Red Robin's onion rings are the best!

Here's my spaghetti all mixed up....very tasty!

I also made some more of Alicia Silverstone's Oatmeal, Walnut, and Dried Plum Cookies yesterday afternoon to take to church. We were supposed to bring snack for a gathering that we were having. Her recipe can be found here. I made a couple of changes though, because I was out of walnuts and dried plums. After I had the batter mixed up, I divided the mixture into two bowls. In one bowl, I added slivered almonds and chocolate chips, in the other bowl I added dried cranberries instead of the chocolate chips. Both were yummy, but oddly enough I think I like the one with cranberries in better. I would have never thought that I would have liked a cookie with dried fruit in it better than one with chocolate. Anyway, guess how many cookies I brought home. That's right....ZERO! These cookies have been a hit wherever I have taken them.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~